🔗 Share this article

The UK's top law officer, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has called on Nigel Farage to apologise to former schoolmates who claim he racially abused them during their school days.

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

“Throughout his replies to valid inquiries, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer told a news outlet.

Further Testimonies Surface

A series of inquiries last month detailed the statements of more than a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from a private college.

One, a former pupil, described that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and utter: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘gas them’, at times making a long hiss to simulate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

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

“He walked up to a pupil flanked by two similarly tall mates and addressed 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 the way back,’ to wherever you answered you were from.”

After the story broke, more people have stepped forward; around two dozen people have now alleged they were either targets of or observed deeply offensive actions 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 denied that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the former classmates were being untruthful.

Critics have pointed out that Farage has neglected to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his denials.

They also point to his inability to reprimand a party member, Sarah Pochin, after she made remarks about the number of black and brown people she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the comments.

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

He went on to say: “Arguing that a group of people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Demand for Accountability

“If he wants to be seen as a credible figure for the top job, he must acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Racism 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, a senior politician said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to be considered a true statesman.

“It says a lot how very little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would recognise as being written in a specific manner to say something, but also not to say something,” she said.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters prior to the publication of the report, Farage’s lawyers asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led this behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later appeared to change his explanation in an interview, stating: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could view as being playground talk, you could interpret in a modern light today in a certain manner? Yes.”

He added that he had “not once intentionally attempted to go and harm anybody”. Farage subsequently issued 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.”