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The United Kingdom's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has urged 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 "clearly deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his alleged conduct. He commented that the politician's "evolving" denials had been difficult to believe.

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

Fresh Claims Come to Light

A recent investigation last month detailed the accounts of several ex-pupils of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a 13-year-old Farage "came up to me and say: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, at times making a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority claimed that when he was roughly nine years old, he was similarly targeted by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He approached a pupil flanked by two equally tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the individual said. “That included me on three separate times; inquiring where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you answered you were from.”

After the story broke, additional individuals have emerged; around two dozen people have now alleged they were either targets of or observed deeply offensive conduct by Farage.

The incidents they outlined cover the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Denials and Shifting Positions

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

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

They also reference his inability to sanction a colleague in his party, a MP, after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in television commercials. She later apologised for the comments.

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

He continued: “Suggesting that two dozen individuals have somehow forgotten the same things about his offensive behaviour simply is not believable."

Call for Leadership

“If he wants to be seen as a legitimate candidate for prime minister, he urgently needs address the fears of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the numerous individuals 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 cannot allow it to ever become normalised in society.”

In a separate interview, the Chancellor said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to be considered a genuine leader.

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the precisely drafted words that both you and I would recognise as being drafted in a particular way to communicate, but also dodge the issue,” she noted.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In formal correspondence prior to the release of the report, Farage’s representatives stated that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever engaged in, approved of, or led this behaviour is completely refuted”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his explanation in an interview, stating: “Did I say things 50 years ago that you could see as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some way? Yes.”

He said that he had “not once intentionally sought to go and hurt anybody”. Farage later released a new statement: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been printed when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”