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The United Kingdom's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has demanded the Reform UK leader to apologise to former schoolmates who allege he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer said that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, based on their descriptions of his alleged conduct. He added that the politician's "evolving" statements had been less than credible.

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

Further Testimonies Surface

A recent investigation last month documented the statements of over a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from Dulwich College.

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

Another pupil from an ethnic minority claimed that when he was roughly nine years old, he was subjected to similar treatment by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He approached a pupil flanked by two equally tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the former student said. “That happened to me on three separate times; questioning me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you said you were from.”

After the story broke, additional individuals have emerged; approximately twenty people have now stated they were either subject to or witnesses to highly inappropriate conduct by Farage.

The behaviour they described span the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Denials and Shifting Positions

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

Observers have highlighted that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his denials.

They also point to his inability to sanction a party member, Sarah Pochin, after she expressed views about the number of people of colour she saw in television commercials. She later said sorry for the comments.

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

He continued: “Arguing that a group of people have all misremembered the same things about his nasty behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Question of Character

“If he wishes to be seen as a credible figure for high office, he urgently needs confront the fears of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Bigotry in all its forms is anathema to the values of this country and we must not permit it to ever become accepted in politics.”

In a separate interview, the Chancellor said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a genuine leader.

“It says a lot how little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would understand as being crafted in a particular way to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” 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 this behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later appeared to change his stance in an interview, remarking: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some way? Yes.”

He said that he had “never directly really tried to go and harm anybody”. Farage subsequently released a new statement: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been reported aged 13, nearly 50 years ago.”