🔗 Share this article

The United Kingdom's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has urged Nigel Farage to issue an apology to school contemporaries who claim he racially abused them during their years in education.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, according to their testimonies of his past behaviour. He commented that the leader's "constantly changing" denials had been difficult to believe.

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

Fresh Claims Come to Light

A published report last month documented the accounts of several ex-pupils of Farage from a south London school.

One, a former pupil, said that a 13-year-old Farage "came up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to mimic the sound of the gas showers”.

Another student of colour stated that when he was roughly nine years old, he was similarly targeted by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He approached a pupil with two tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘other’,” the former student said. “That involved me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to any place you replied you were from.”

After the story broke, more people have stepped forward; approximately twenty people have now alleged they were either subject to or witnesses to highly inappropriate past behaviour by Farage.

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

Denials and Shifting Positions

The political figure has rejected that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has asserted the accusers were misremembering.

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

They also point to his inability to discipline a colleague in his party, a MP, after she expressed views about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in television commercials. She later said sorry for the remarks.

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

He added: “Claiming that a group of people have all recalled incorrectly the same things about his offensive behaviour simply is not believable."

Question of Character

“If he wishes to be seen as a credible figure for prime minister, he has to confront the fears of the Jewish community, and apologise to the those he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

“Bigotry in all its forms is completely opposed to the values of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become legitimised in society.”

In a other comments, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to appear as a genuine leader.

“It speaks volumes how very little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would understand as being drafted in a particular way to communicate, but also not to say something,” she noted.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In lawyers' communications prior to the release of the investigation, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever took part in, approved of, or led this behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his stance in an interview, remarking: “Did I say things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being playground talk, you could interpret in a modern light today in some way? Yes.”

He commented that he had “never directly really tried to go and upset anybody”. Farage subsequently put out a further comment: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been published when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”