🔗 Share this article

The United Kingdom's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has demanded Nigel Farage to issue an apology to school contemporaries who claim he racially abused them during their time at school.

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, based on their testimonies of his past behaviour. He noted that the politician's "evolving" explanations had been unconvincing.

“During his replies to legitimate questions, not once has Farage truly condemned antisemitism,” Hermer informed a publication.

New Allegations Surface

A recent investigation last month detailed the testimony of several former classmates of Farage from a south London school.

One, Peter Ettedgui, described that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and growl: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, sometimes adding a long hiss to mimic 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 approached a pupil with two equally tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘other’,” the person said. “That included me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

Since then, additional individuals have come forward; approximately twenty people have now alleged they were either subject to or saw deeply offensive past behaviour by Farage.

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

Denials and Shifting Positions

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

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

They also cite his reluctance to discipline 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 schoolmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He continued: “Claiming that 20 people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply is not believable."

Demand for Accountability

“If he aspires to be seen as a serious contender for high office, he has to confront the concerns of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Bigotry in all its forms is abhorrent to the standards of this country and we should not let it to ever become legitimised in society.”

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

“It speaks volumes how very little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would understand as being drafted in a certain style to say something, but also avoid saying certain things,” she said.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In formal correspondence before the release of the investigation, Farage’s legal team claimed that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever engaged in, approved of, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his stance in an appearance, remarking: “Have I said things decades ago that you could view as being banter, you could interpret in a today's standards today in some sort of way? Yes.”

He said that he had “never directly sought to go and harm anybody”. Farage subsequently put out a fresh denial: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been published when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”