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The UK's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has urged the Reform UK leader to issue an apology to school contemporaries who allege he racially abused them during their time at school.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, according to their descriptions of his alleged conduct. He added that the leader's "shifting" denials had been difficult to believe.

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

New Allegations Come to Light

A recent investigation last month documented the accounts of more than a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from Dulwich College.

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

Another pupil from an ethnic minority alleged that when he was roughly nine years old, he was singled out by a older Farage.

“He walked up to a pupil flanked by two equally tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the person said. “That included me on three separate times; questioning me where I was from, and pointing away, 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 claimed they were either targets of or observed deeply offensive conduct by Farage.

The alleged events they described cover the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Evolving Explanations

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

Commentators have noted that Farage has neglected to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his denials.

They also reference his reluctance to sanction a party member, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of people of colour she saw in adverts. She later said sorry for the remarks.

“His shifting account about his behaviour to his peers [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He continued: “Suggesting that two dozen individuals have somehow misremembered the same things about his nasty behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Question of Character

“If he wants to be seen as a legitimate candidate for high office, he has to address the anxieties of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Racism in all its forms is abhorrent to the values of this country and we should not let it to ever become normalised in politics.”

In a different discussion, a senior politician said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to appear as a true statesman.

“It speaks volumes how very little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would understand as being drafted in a certain style to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she noted.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In formal correspondence before the publication of the report, Farage’s lawyers stated that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever took part in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later altered his explanation in an interview, stating: “Have I said things decades ago that you could see as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in a certain manner? Yes.”

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