🔗 Share this article

The UK's attorney general, Richard Hermer, has demanded the Reform UK leader to apologise to school contemporaries who allege he racially abused them during their school days.

Hermer remarked that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, judging by their accounts of his actions as a youth. He commented that the politician's "shifting" denials had been difficult to believe.

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

Further Testimonies Surface

A published report last month outlined the statements of more than a dozen ex-pupils of Farage from Dulwich College.

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

Another minority ethnic pupil claimed that when he was about nine, he was similarly targeted by a 17-year-old Farage.

“He came over to a pupil accompanied by two similarly tall mates and targeted anyone looking ‘other’,” the individual said. “That included me on three separate times; asking me where I was from, and gesturing, saying: ‘That’s the way back,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”

Following the initial report, others have come forward; around two dozen people have now alleged they were either subject to or witnesses to deeply offensive actions by Farage.

The behaviour they recounted span the period when Farage was aged a teenager.

Denials and Shifting Positions

The Reform leader has rejected that anything he did was "explicitly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the former classmates were being untruthful.

Critics have noted that Farage has neglected to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism outright in his denials.

They also reference his reluctance to discipline a party member, a MP, after she complained about the number of black and brown people she saw in television commercials. She later apologised for the remarks.

“His constantly changing story about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer stated.

He continued: “Claiming that 20 people have somehow misremembered the same things about his nasty behaviour simply is not believable."

Call for Leadership

“If he wants to be seen as a legitimate candidate for high office, he has to acknowledge the anxieties of the Jewish community, and say sorry to the those he has obviously deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.

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

In a different discussion, Rachel Reeves said Farage should “speak out” if he wanted to be considered a real leader.

“It is very telling how very little he has to say, and the guarded phrasing that both you and I would identify as being written in a specific manner to communicate, but also dodge the issue,” she said.

Legal Letters and Later Statements

In formal correspondence prior to the publication of the report, Farage’s lawyers stated that “the allegation that Mr Farage ever was involved in, condoned, or led racist or antisemitic behaviour is completely refuted”.

Farage later seemingly shifted his explanation in an interview, stating: “Have I said things decades ago that you could view as being teenage humour, you could interpret in a contemporary context today in some sort of way? Yes.”

He added that he had “never directly sought to go and upset anybody”. Farage subsequently issued a new statement: “I can tell you unequivocally that I did not say the things that have been published when I was 13, decades in the past.”