🔗 Share this article

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

Hermer stated that Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his past behaviour. He commented that the politician's "shifting" explanations had been difficult to believe.

“During his answers to valid inquiries, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a news outlet.

Fresh Claims Surface

A recent investigation last month detailed the statements of more than a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from a south London school.

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and utter: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, occasionally including a long hiss to mimic the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another student of colour stated that when he was about nine, he was subjected to similar treatment by a older Farage.

“He approached a pupil flanked by two similarly tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘different’,” the former student said. “That included me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to wherever you said you were from.”

Since then, others have emerged; approximately twenty people have now stated they were either targets of or witnesses to hurtful conduct by Farage.

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

Denials and Shifting Positions

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

Observers have highlighted that Farage has neglected to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his responses.

They also reference his inability 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 said sorry for the statements.

“His shifting account about his behaviour to his peers [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer said.

He continued: “Suggesting that a group of people have somehow misremembered the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply is not believable."

Question of Character

“If he aspires to be seen as a legitimate candidate for prime minister, he has to address the concerns of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Bigotry 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 “say something” if he wanted to appear as a genuine leader.

“It says a lot how little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would recognise as being written in a certain style to communicate, but also avoid saying certain things,” she remarked.

Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments

In formal correspondence prior to the publication of the report, Farage’s lawyers asserted that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, supported, or led this behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later altered his position in an interview, remarking: “Have I said things decades ago that you could interpret as being banter, you could interpret in a today's standards today in a certain manner? Yes.”

He said that he had “not once intentionally really tried to go and harm anybody”. Farage afterwards issued a further comment: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been published when I was 13, so long ago.”