🔗 Share this article

The UK's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who claim he targeted with racist abuse them during their time at school.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, based on their testimonies of his alleged conduct. He noted that the politician's "shifting" denials had been difficult to believe.

“Throughout his answers to legitimate questions, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer informed a news outlet.

Fresh Claims Surface

A series of inquiries last month outlined the accounts of over a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from a south London school.

One, Peter Ettedgui, recalled that a teenage Farage "would approach me and growl: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, at times making a long hiss to simulate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority claimed that when he was roughly nine years old, he was similarly targeted by a older Farage.

“He came over to a pupil with two tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the former student said. “That included me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to wherever you answered you were from.”

Since then, additional individuals have come forward; approximately twenty people have now stated they were either targets of or witnesses to deeply offensive conduct by Farage.

The incidents they recounted span the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Changing Stories

The Reform leader has disputed that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has asserted the individuals were being untruthful.

Observers have pointed out that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his responses.

They also reference his failure to discipline a colleague in his party, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in television commercials. She later apologised for the comments.

“His constantly changing story about his behaviour to his peers [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He added: “Claiming that two dozen individuals have all misremembered the same things about his offensive behaviour simply is not believable."

Call for Leadership

“If he wishes to be seen as a legitimate candidate for the top job, he must confront the concerns of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the many people he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Bigotry in all its forms is anathema to the principles of this country and we should not let it to ever become legitimised in public life.”

In a separate interview, the Chancellor said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to be considered a real leader.

“It says a lot how very little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would recognise as being crafted in a specific manner to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she noted.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In legal letters prior to the release of the report, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever engaged in, supported, or led this behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later appeared to change his position in an appearance, remarking: “Did I say things decades ago that you could view as being banter, you could interpret in a today's standards today in a certain manner? Yes.”

He said that he had “not once intentionally really tried to go and harm anybody”. Farage subsequently released a new statement: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been published as a 13-year-old, so long ago.”