🔗 Share this article

The United Kingdom's top law officer, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has demanded the Reform UK leader to apologise to school contemporaries who allege he targeted with racist abuse them during their time at school.

Hermer stated that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, based on their descriptions of his past behaviour. He added that the politician's "shifting" explanations had been less than credible.

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

New Allegations Surface

A published report last month outlined the accounts of more than a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from a private college.

One, a former pupil, described that a 13-year-old Farage "would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, at times making a long hiss to mimic the sound of the gas showers”.

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

“He came over to a pupil with two similarly tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘different’,” the person said. “That involved me on three occasions; inquiring where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you said you were from.”

Since then, others have come forward; around two dozen people have now alleged they were either subject to or witnesses to deeply offensive past behaviour by Farage.

The alleged events they outlined span the period when Farage was aged between 13 and 18.

Evolving Explanations

The political figure has rejected that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the individuals were not telling the truth.

Critics have noted that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his statements.

They also cite his failure to reprimand a colleague in his party, a MP, after she expressed views about the number of black and brown people she saw in television commercials. She later apologised for the remarks.

“Nigel Farage’s evolving narrative about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He went on to say: “Claiming that two dozen individuals have all misremembered the same things about his nasty behaviour simply is not believable."

Call for Leadership

“If he wants to be seen as a serious contender for high office, he must acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish people, and apologise to the those he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Bigotry in all its forms is completely opposed to the values of this country and we should not let it to ever become normalised in society.”

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

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would identify as being drafted in a specific manner to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she said.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In legal letters before the publication of the report, Farage’s legal team stated that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever took part in, condoned, or led this behaviour is strongly rejected”.

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

He commented that he had “not once intentionally sought to go and harm anybody”. Farage later put out a new statement: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been reported aged 13, nearly 50 years ago.”