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The UK's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to issue an apology to school contemporaries who assert he targeted with racist abuse them during their time at school.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, based on their testimonies of his alleged conduct. He noted that the politician's "shifting" statements had been less than credible.

“In his replies to valid inquiries, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism,” Hermer informed a publication.

New Allegations Surface

A published report last month documented the accounts of over a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and say: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘gas them’, occasionally including a long hiss to imitate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

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

“He approached a pupil with two tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the individual said. “That included me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to any place you said you were from.”

Following the initial report, more people have emerged; about 20 people have now alleged they were either victims of or saw highly inappropriate conduct by Farage.

The incidents they recounted relate to the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Evolving Explanations

The political figure has disputed that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has asserted the accusers were not telling the truth.

Observers have noted that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his responses.

They also point to his inability to sanction a colleague in his party, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the comments.

“Nigel Farage’s evolving narrative about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He went on to say: “Suggesting that a group of people have somehow recalled incorrectly the same things about his nasty behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Demand for Accountability

“If he wishes to be seen as a serious contender for prime minister, he has to confront the anxieties of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the those he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Bigotry in all its forms is anathema to the principles of this country and we must not permit it to ever become legitimised in politics.”

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

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

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications prior to the publication of the investigation, Farage’s representatives asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever was involved in, approved of, or led such conduct is completely refuted”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his explanation in an interview, remarking: “Did I say things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a today's standards today in a certain manner? Yes.”

He said that he had “not once intentionally attempted to go and hurt anybody”. Farage later put out a new statement: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been printed aged 13, decades in the past.”