🔗 Share this article

The UK's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has demanded Nigel Farage to apologise to former schoolmates who claim he racially abused 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 commented that the politician's "evolving" denials had been unconvincing.

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

Further Testimonies Come to Light

A published report last month outlined the accounts of over a dozen one-time schoolmates of Farage from Dulwich College.

One, Peter Ettedgui, described that a teenage Farage "would sidle up to me and utter: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, sometimes adding a long hiss to imitate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.

Another student of colour alleged that when he was roughly nine years old, he was similarly targeted by a older Farage.

“He came over to a pupil with two similarly tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘other’,” the individual said. “That included me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to any place you said you were from.”

Since then, additional individuals have come forward; about 20 people have now claimed they were either victims of or witnesses to highly inappropriate past behaviour by Farage.

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

Evolving Explanations

The political figure has denied that anything he did was "directly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the individuals were misremembering.

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

They also reference his reluctance to discipline a fellow Reform MP, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of people of colour she saw in adverts. She later said sorry for the statements.

“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He added: “Arguing that two dozen individuals have somehow forgotten the same things about his offensive behaviour simply isn’t credible."

Question of Character

“If he wants to be seen as a legitimate candidate for high office, he has to confront the anxieties of the Jewish people, and apologise to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer stated.

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

In a other comments, the Chancellor said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to be considered a real leader.

“It speaks volumes how little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would identify as being crafted in a particular way to communicate, but also not to say something,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In lawyers' communications prior to the publication of the report, Farage’s representatives stated that “the suggestion that Mr Farage ever was involved in, approved of, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is categorically denied”.

Farage later altered his position in an interview, stating: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could view as being banter, you could interpret in a today's standards today in some way? Yes.”

He commented that he had “never directly attempted to go and harm anybody”. Farage subsequently released a new statement: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been printed as a 13-year-old, nearly 50 years ago.”