🔗 Share this article

The UK's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has urged the Reform UK leader to apologise to school contemporaries who assert he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.

Hermer stated that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their descriptions of his alleged conduct. He added that the leader's "shifting" explanations had been difficult to believe.

“In his defensive responses to valid inquiries, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer informed a news outlet.

Fresh Claims Surface

A series of inquiries last month documented the statements of more than a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, Peter Ettedgui, said that a 13-year-old Farage "would sidle up to me and growl: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘gas them’, occasionally including a long hiss to mimic the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority alleged that when he was roughly nine years old, he was subjected to similar treatment by a older Farage.

“He approached a pupil flanked by two similarly tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the individual said. “That included me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

Since then, others have emerged; approximately twenty people have now alleged they were either subject to or witnesses to deeply offensive past behaviour by Farage.

The alleged events they described span the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.

Changing Stories

The Reform leader has disputed that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has claimed the former classmates were being untruthful.

Critics have highlighted that Farage has not managed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his statements.

They also reference his reluctance to discipline a party member, a MP, after she complained about the number of people of colour she saw in television commercials. She later expressed regret for the statements.

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

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

Call for Leadership

“If he aspires to be seen as a legitimate candidate for high office, he must address the concerns of the Jewish community, and apologise to the numerous individuals he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

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

In a other comments, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to look like a true statesman.

“It is very telling 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 communicate, but also avoid saying certain things,” she remarked.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In legal letters before the release of the investigation, Farage’s representatives stated that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever took part in, approved of, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later appeared to change his position in an discussion, remarking: “Have I said things decades ago that you could view as being playground talk, you could interpret in a today's standards today in some sort of way? Yes.”

He added that he had “not once intentionally attempted to go and harm anybody”. Farage afterwards put out a fresh denial: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been reported aged 13, nearly 50 years ago.”