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The United Kingdom's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to school contemporaries who claim he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.

Hermer stated that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his actions as a youth. He noted that the politician's "shifting" statements had been difficult to believe.

“Throughout his replies to valid inquiries, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a news outlet.

Fresh Claims Emerge

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

One, a former pupil, described that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and say: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers”.

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

“He approached a pupil with two tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the former student said. “That included me on three separate times; questioning me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to wherever you answered you were from.”

Following the initial report, others have stepped forward; about 20 people have now claimed they were either victims of or witnesses to deeply offensive actions by Farage.

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

Evolving Explanations

The political figure has denied that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the former classmates were being untruthful.

Critics have pointed out that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his responses.

They also point to his failure to sanction a colleague in his party, a MP, after she complained about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in television commercials. She later said sorry for the comments.

“His constantly changing story about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He added: “Claiming that a group of people 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 serious contender for the top job, he has to acknowledge the fears of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the those he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer concluded.

“Racism in all its forms is abhorrent to the principles of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become legitimised in public life.”

In a separate interview, a senior politician 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 very careful language that both you and I would understand as being crafted in a specific manner to say something, but also dodge the issue,” she said.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In formal correspondence before the publication of the report, Farage’s lawyers stated that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, approved of, or led this behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later altered his stance in an discussion, saying: “Have I said things decades ago that you could interpret as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a today's standards today in some sort of way? Perhaps.”

He said that he had “not ever purposely attempted to go and hurt anybody”. Farage afterwards put out a further comment: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been printed as a 13-year-old, decades in the past.”