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The UK's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has demanded the Reform UK leader to issue an apology to school contemporaries who claim he racially abused them during their time at school.

Hermer said that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their accounts of his actions as a youth. He noted that the politician's "evolving" denials had been unconvincing.

“In his answers to valid inquiries, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a news outlet.

Fresh Claims Come to Light

A published report last month documented the accounts of over a dozen former classmates of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, a former pupil, said that a 13-year-old Farage "came up to me and utter: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to mimic the sound of the gas showers”.

Another student of colour claimed that when he was roughly nine years old, he was singled out by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil with two equally tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the individual said. “That involved me on three separate times; inquiring where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you answered you were from.”

After the story broke, additional individuals have emerged; around two dozen people have now alleged they were either targets of or saw hurtful actions by Farage.

The alleged events they described span the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Changing Stories

The Reform leader has disputed that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the accusers were misremembering.

Observers have pointed out that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his statements.

They also point to his reluctance to discipline a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of people of colour she saw in television commercials. She later apologised for the comments.

“Nigel Farage’s evolving narrative about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He added: “Claiming that a group of people have somehow misremembered the same things about his offensive behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Call for Leadership

“If he wishes to be seen as a serious contender for the top job, he urgently needs address the fears of the Jewish community, and apologise to the many people he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Racism in all its forms is abhorrent to the values of this country and we must not permit it to ever become normalised in politics.”

In a other comments, a senior politician said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a genuine leader.

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would understand as being drafted in a certain style to communicate, but also avoid saying certain things,” she remarked.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In formal correspondence prior to the release of the investigation, Farage’s lawyers stated that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led such conduct is completely refuted”.

Farage later altered his stance in an discussion, remarking: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could view as being playground talk, you could interpret in a modern light today in some sort of way? Yes.”

He added that he had “not once intentionally really tried to go and hurt anybody”. Farage later released a fresh denial: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been reported when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”