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The UK's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has demanded the Reform UK leader to apologise to school contemporaries who allege he racially abused them during their school days.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their testimonies of his alleged conduct. He commented that the politician's "evolving" explanations had been difficult to believe.

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

New Allegations Come to Light

A recent investigation last month documented the accounts of more than a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from a south London school.

One, a former pupil, said that a 13-year-old Farage "came up to me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘gas them’, at times making a long hiss to mimic the sound of the gas showers”.

Another minority ethnic pupil claimed that when he was about nine, he was subjected to similar treatment by a older Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil with two similarly tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the person said. “That involved me on three separate times; questioning me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to wherever you answered you were from.”

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

The incidents they outlined cover the period when Farage was aged between 13 and 18.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The political figure has rejected that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has asserted the former classmates were being untruthful.

Critics have noted that Farage has neglected to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his statements.

They also reference his inability to sanction a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she complained about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in adverts. She later expressed regret for the statements.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He added: “Arguing that a group of people have all recalled incorrectly the same things about his nasty behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Demand for Accountability

“If he wishes to be seen as a credible figure for high office, he has to address the concerns of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the those he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

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

In a other comments, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to look like a real leader.

“It is very telling how little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would understand as being written in a specific manner to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she remarked.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

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

Farage later seemingly shifted his position in an discussion, saying: “Have I said things decades ago that you could view as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a today's standards today in some way? Possibly.”

He said that he had “never directly really tried to go and harm anybody”. Farage later released a fresh denial: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been printed when I was 13, decades in the past.”