🔗 Share this article

The United Kingdom's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has called on the Reform UK leader to issue an apology to former schoolmates who claim he racially abused them during their time at school.

Hermer stated that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his actions as a youth. He noted that the leader's "constantly changing" statements had been less than credible.

“Throughout his replies to legitimate questions, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer stated to a news outlet.

Fresh Claims Surface

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

One, a former pupil, described that a 13-year-old Farage "would sidle up to me and utter: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘gas them’, sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers”.

Another minority ethnic pupil stated that when he was about nine, he was subjected to similar treatment by a older Farage.

“He came over to a pupil accompanied by two equally tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘different’,” the person said. “That happened to me on three occasions; inquiring where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to any place you said you were from.”

After the story broke, others have stepped forward; around two dozen people have now stated they were either subject to or witnesses to highly inappropriate past behaviour by Farage.

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

Denials and Shifting Positions

The Reform leader has denied that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has asserted the accusers were misremembering.

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

They also cite his inability to discipline a colleague in his party, a MP, after she expressed views about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in television commercials. She later apologised for the comments.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] hard to believe, to say the least,” Hermer commented.

He continued: “Suggesting that 20 people have all misremembered the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply lacks credibility."

Demand for Accountability

“If he wants to be seen as a credible figure for the top job, he urgently needs address the concerns of the Jewish people, and apologise to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

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

In a other comments, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to appear as a real leader.

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would identify as being crafted in a specific manner to say something, but also not to say something,” she noted.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications before the release of the report, Farage’s lawyers asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever took part in, supported, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is completely refuted”.

Farage later altered his position in an interview, stating: “Have I said things as a youth that you could view as being playground talk, you could interpret in a modern light today in some way? Possibly.”

He said that he had “not ever purposely sought to go and upset anybody”. Farage afterwards issued a fresh denial: “I can tell you categorically that I did not say the things that have been printed when I was 13, decades in the past.”