🔗 Share this article

The United Kingdom's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who assert he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their accounts of his actions as a youth. He noted that the leader's "constantly changing" statements had been unconvincing.

“Throughout his replies to valid inquiries, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a publication.

Fresh Claims Come to Light

A recent investigation last month detailed the accounts of more than a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from a private college.

One, a former pupil, said that a teenage Farage "came up to me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to imitate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another student of colour claimed that when he was roughly nine years old, he was subjected to similar treatment by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He came over to a pupil accompanied by two tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘other’,” the former student said. “That included me on three separate times; inquiring where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

Following the initial report, more people have stepped forward; about 20 people have now claimed they were either victims of or witnesses to highly inappropriate past behaviour by Farage.

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

Changing Stories

The Reform leader has denied that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the accusers were misremembering.

Commentators have highlighted that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his denials.

They also reference his reluctance to sanction a fellow Reform MP, Sarah Pochin, after she expressed views about the number of people of colour she saw in adverts. She later said sorry for the statements.

“Nigel Farage’s shifting account about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He added: “Arguing that 20 people have all misremembered the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Call for Leadership

“If he aspires to be seen as a serious contender for prime minister, he must confront the concerns of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the those he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Prejudice in all its forms is abhorrent to the values of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become legitimised in politics.”

In a different discussion, a senior politician said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to look like a true statesman.

“It speaks volumes how little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would identify as being crafted in a specific manner to communicate, but also not to say something,” she noted.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In lawyers' communications prior to the release of the report, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever took part in, supported, or led such conduct is strongly rejected”.

Farage later appeared to change his stance in an appearance, remarking: “Did I say things decades ago that you could see as being playground talk, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in a certain manner? Yes.”

He added that he had “not ever purposely attempted to go and hurt anybody”. Farage subsequently released a fresh denial: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been published when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”