🔗 Share this article

The United Kingdom's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has called on Nigel Farage to apologise to former schoolmates who claim he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.

Hermer said that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his past behaviour. He commented that the leader's "constantly changing" denials had been unconvincing.

“In his answers to legitimate questions, not once has Farage truly condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a publication.

Fresh Claims Come to Light

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

One, a former pupil, recalled that a 13-year-old Farage "would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to imitate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another student of colour stated that when he was about nine, he was similarly targeted by a older Farage.

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

Following the initial report, additional individuals have emerged; about 20 people have now claimed they were either targets of or witnesses to highly inappropriate past behaviour by Farage.

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

Changing Stories

The political figure has denied that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the former classmates were not telling the truth.

Commentators have pointed out that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his responses.

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

“His shifting account about his behaviour to his peers [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He continued: “Suggesting that 20 people have somehow misremembered the same things about his offensive behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Question of Character

“If he wants to be seen as a credible figure for the top job, he urgently needs confront the concerns of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

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

In a separate interview, a senior politician said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to appear as a genuine 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 crafted in a certain style to say something, but also not to say something,” she noted.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters prior to the release of the report, Farage’s lawyers claimed that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his position in an interview, remarking: “Have I said things decades ago that you could view as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a modern light today in a certain manner? Possibly.”

He commented that he had “never directly attempted to go and hurt anybody”. Farage subsequently released a fresh denial: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been published as a 13-year-old, decades in the past.”