🔗 Share this article

The United Kingdom's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has called on the Reform UK leader to issue an apology to school contemporaries who claim he racially abused them during their school days.

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

“In his answers to legitimate questions, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer told a publication.

Further Testimonies Emerge

A series of inquiries last month outlined the testimony of over a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from a south London school.

One, Peter Ettedgui, recalled 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 gas showers”.

Another pupil from an ethnic minority alleged that when he was about nine, he was similarly targeted by a older Farage.

“He came over to a pupil with two equally tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the person said. “That included me on three occasions; inquiring where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to wherever you answered you were from.”

Following the initial report, additional individuals have emerged; approximately twenty people have now claimed they were either subject to or observed hurtful past behaviour by Farage.

The incidents they outlined span the period when Farage was aged between 13 and 18.

Evolving Explanations

The Reform leader has rejected that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the individuals were not telling the truth.

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

They also cite his failure to reprimand a colleague in his party, Sarah Pochin, after she expressed views about the number of people of colour she saw in adverts. She later said sorry for the comments.

“Nigel Farage’s shifting account about his behaviour to his peers [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He continued: “Claiming that a group of people have all forgotten the same things about his hurtful 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 address the anxieties of the Jewish people, and say sorry to the numerous individuals he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

“Racism in all its forms is anathema to the standards of this country and we must not permit it to ever become normalised in public life.”

In a separate interview, a senior politician said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a real leader.

“It speaks volumes 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 noted.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In formal correspondence before the release of the report, Farage’s legal team asserted that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is strongly rejected”.

Farage later altered his position in an interview, saying: “Did I say things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being playground talk, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some sort of way? Yes.”

He commented that he had “never directly attempted to go and hurt anybody”. Farage subsequently issued a new statement: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been printed when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”