The UK's attorney general, one of the most senior Jewish ministers, has called on Nigel Farage to issue an apology to former schoolmates who allege he targeted with racist abuse them during their years in education.
Hermer stated that Farage had "undoubtedly deeply hurt" many people, based on their accounts of his past behaviour. He noted that the politician's "shifting" statements had been difficult to believe.
“Throughout his answers to legitimate questions, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer informed a news outlet.
A published report last month documented the accounts of over a dozen former classmates of Farage from a south London school.
One, Peter Ettedgui, described that a teenage Farage "would approach me and say: ‘Hitler was right’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, at times making a long hiss to mimic the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.
Another minority ethnic pupil alleged that when he was about nine, he was similarly targeted by a 17-year-old Farage.
“He approached a pupil with two equally tall mates and spoke to anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the person said. “That happened to me on three separate times; inquiring where I was from, and motioning, saying: ‘That's how you get back,’ to wherever you replied you were from.”
After the story broke, more people have stepped forward; approximately twenty people have now alleged they were either targets of or witnesses to hurtful past behaviour by Farage.
The behaviour they outlined relate to the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.
The political figure has rejected that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the accusers were not telling the truth.
Observers have pointed out that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism in a wider sense in his denials.
They also point to his failure to sanction a colleague in his party, a MP, after she made remarks about the number of ethnic minorities she saw in television commercials. She later expressed regret for the remarks.
“Nigel Farage’s evolving narrative about his behaviour to his Jewish classmates [is] not credible, to say the least,” Hermer stated.
He added: “Claiming that two dozen individuals have somehow misremembered the same things about his hurtful behaviour simply isn’t credible."
“If he aspires to be seen as a legitimate candidate for the top job, he must address the anxieties of the Jewish community, and apologise to the numerous individuals he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.
“Prejudice in all its forms is anathema to the standards of this country and we must not permit it to ever become legitimised in society.”
In a different discussion, a senior politician said Farage should “say something” if he wanted to appear as a real leader.
“It says a lot how very little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would recognise as being crafted in a particular way to communicate, but also avoid saying certain things,” she remarked.
In legal letters prior to the release of the investigation, Farage’s legal team stated that “the implication that Mr Farage ever took part in, condoned, or led such conduct is completely refuted”.
Farage later altered his explanation in an appearance, stating: “Have I said things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being playground talk, you could interpret in a today's standards today in a certain manner? Possibly.”
He said that he had “not once intentionally sought to go and upset anybody”. Farage afterwards issued a further comment: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been reported when I was 13, nearly 50 years ago.”
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