Attorney General Demands Reform UK Leader to Say Sorry Over Claimed Antisemitic and Racist Behaviour.
The United Kingdom's top law officer, Richard Hermer, has demanded the Reform UK leader to apologise to school contemporaries who assert he targeted with racist abuse them during their school days.
Hermer said that Farage had "obviously deeply hurt" many people, according to their accounts of his actions as a youth. He commented that the politician's "constantly changing" statements had been less than credible.
“Throughout his replies to legitimate questions, not once has Farage genuinely condemned antisemitism,” Hermer informed a publication.
New Allegations Emerge
A recent investigation last month documented the accounts of more than a dozen former classmates of Farage from Dulwich College.
One, Peter Ettedgui, recalled that a 13-year-old Farage "would sidle up to me and growl: ‘The Nazi leader was correct’ or ‘send them to the gas chambers’, occasionally including a long hiss to imitate the sound of the Nazi gas chambers”.
Another pupil from an ethnic minority stated that when he was about nine, he was subjected to similar treatment by a 17-year-old Farage.
“He approached a pupil flanked by two similarly tall mates and addressed anyone looking ‘unusual’,” the former student said. “That included me on three occasions; questioning me where I was from, and pointing away, saying: ‘Go back that way,’ to any place you replied you were from.”
After the story broke, additional individuals have emerged; about 20 people have now stated they were either targets of or observed highly inappropriate past behaviour by Farage.
The behaviour they recounted span the period when Farage was aged 13 to 18.
Denials and Shifting Positions
The political figure has disputed that anything he did was "blatantly" racist or antisemitic, and has suggested the former classmates were misremembering.
Commentators have highlighted that Farage has failed to condemn antisemitism and other forms of racism more broadly in his responses.
They also reference his inability to sanction a party member, Sarah Pochin, after she complained about the number of people of colour she saw in adverts. She later apologised for the statements.
“His evolving narrative about his behaviour to his schoolmates [is] unconvincing, to say the least,” Hermer said.
He went on to say: “Claiming that 20 people have somehow forgotten the same things about his nasty behaviour simply isn’t credible."
Demand for Accountability
“If he wishes to be seen as a serious contender for the top job, he must address the anxieties of the Jewish people, and apologise to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour,” Hermer said.
“Bigotry in all its forms is completely opposed to the values of this country and we must not permit it to ever become normalised in politics.”
In a other comments, the Chancellor said Farage should “make a statement” if he wanted to appear as a true statesman.
“It is very telling how little he has to say, and the very careful language that both you and I would identify as being written in a certain style to communicate, but also avoid saying certain things,” she said.
Formal Denials and Subsequent Comments
In legal letters prior to the release of the investigation, Farage’s representatives asserted that “the implication that Mr Farage ever took part in, approved of, or led this behaviour is categorically denied”.
Farage later altered his stance in an interview, remarking: “Did I say things decades ago that you could see as being playground talk, you could interpret in a today's standards today in some sort of way? Yes.”
He commented that he had “not once intentionally really tried to go and hurt anybody”. Farage subsequently released a fresh denial: “I can tell you definitely that I did not say the things that have been published as a 13-year-old, so long ago.”