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The United Kingdom's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has demanded Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who allege he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.

Hermer stated that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, according to their descriptions of his alleged conduct. He commented that the leader's "evolving" explanations had been less than credible.

“In his answers to legitimate questions, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism,” Hermer told a news outlet.

Fresh Claims Surface

A published report last month detailed the accounts of more than a dozen former classmates of Farage from a south London school.

One, Peter Ettedgui, described that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and utter: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, sometimes adding a long hiss to imitate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

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

“He came over to a pupil flanked by two similarly tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘other’,” the former student said. “That included me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

After the story broke, more people have stepped forward; about 20 people have now alleged they were either subject to or witnesses to highly inappropriate past behaviour by Farage.

The incidents they described cover the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The Reform leader has disputed that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the accusers were not telling the truth.

Commentators have noted that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his responses.

They also cite his inability to discipline a colleague in his party, a MP, after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in television commercials. She later said sorry for the remarks.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his peers [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He added: “Suggesting that 20 people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his nasty behaviour simply is not believable."

Call for Leadership

“If he wants to be seen as a legitimate candidate for prime minister, he must confront the anxieties 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 abhorrent to the values of this country and we must not permit it to ever become normalised in politics.”

In a other comments, the Chancellor said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a real leader.

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would identify as being written in a specific manner to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications before the release of the report, Farage’s lawyers claimed that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever took part in, approved of, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later altered his explanation in an appearance, stating: “Did I say things 50 years ago that you could see as being banter, you could interpret in a modern light today in some sort of way? Possibly.”

He said that he had “never directly really tried to go and hurt anybody”. Farage subsequently put out 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.”