🔗 Share this article

The UK's top law officer, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has demanded Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who allege he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his past behaviour. He commented that the politician's "shifting" denials had been less than credible.

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

Fresh Claims Surface

A recent investigation last month detailed the accounts of several former classmates 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 ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including 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 similarly targeted by a older Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil with two tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘different’,” the individual said. “That happened to me on three occasions; inquiring where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you replied you were from.”

Since then, more people have come forward; about 20 people have now claimed they were either victims of or witnesses to deeply offensive actions by Farage.

The alleged events they recounted relate to the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The political figure has denied that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has asserted the former classmates were misremembering.

Critics have noted that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his denials.

They also reference his reluctance to reprimand a colleague in his party, Sarah Pochin, after she made remarks about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in adverts. She later said sorry for the statements.

“Nigel Farage’s constantly changing story about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He went on to say: “Claiming that 20 people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Call for Leadership

“If he wishes to be seen as a serious contender for high office, he has to acknowledge the fears of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the those he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Prejudice in all its forms is completely opposed to the standards of this country and we should not let it to ever become normalised in public life.”

In a separate interview, a senior politician said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to look like a genuine leader.

“It speaks volumes how little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would recognise as being written in a specific manner to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In legal letters prior to the publication of the investigation, Farage’s representatives stated that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever engaged in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later appeared to change his position in an interview, stating: “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 sort of way? Possibly.”

He said that he had “not once intentionally really tried to go and upset anybody”. Farage subsequently put out a new statement: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been printed when I was 13, so long ago.”