Attorney general calls for Farage to apologise

The UK's top law officer, one of the most senior Jewish government ministers, has urged Nigel Farage to apologise to contemporaries who claim the Reform UK leader racially abused them while at school.

- Pippa Crerar

The attorney general, Richard Hermer, said Farage had "clearly deeply hurt" many people, according to their descriptions of his behaviour, and that his "constantly changing" denials had been unconvincing.

Speaking to the Guardian, Lord Hermer said: "Throughout his defensive responses to legitimate questions put to him, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism."

A Guardian investigation last month reported the testimony of more than a dozen former classmates of Farage at Dulwich college, in south London.

They included Peter Ettedgui, who said a 13-year-old Farage "would sidle up to me and growl: 'Hitler was right' or 'gas them', sometimes adding a long hiss to simulate the sound of the gas showers".

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

"He walked up to a pupil flanked by two similarly tall mates and spoke to anyone looking 'different'," the pupil said. "That included me on three occasions; asking me where I was from, and pointing away, saying 'that's the way back' to wherever you replied you were from." More people have come forward since the Guardian published its initial story; about 20 individuals have now alleged they were either victims of or witnesses to deeply offensive past behaviour by Farage.