Farage should apologise to classmates for alleged antisemitism, Attorney General says

"[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,” Ettedgui told the newspaper. He subsequently said Farage had been 13 at the time. 

The Reform UK leader has denied anything he did was “directly” racist or antisemitic and alleged that his former classmates were not telling the truth.

Speaking to the same newspaper this week, Hermer said: “Arguing that 20 people have somehow all misremembered the same things about his nasty behaviour simply isn’t credible. Throughout his defensive responses to legitimate questions put to him, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism.

“If he wants to be seen as a legitimate candidate for prime minister, he urgently needs to address the concerns of the Jewish community, and apologise to the many people he has clearly deeply hurt by his behaviour.

“Racism in all its forms is anathema to the values of this country and we cannot allow it to ever become legitimised in public life.”

Last week, Sir Keir Starmer also brought up the issue of Farage’s alleged comments at Prime Minister’s Questions.

“The more we see of Reform, the more we see of their true colours … He says he never engaged with racism with ‘intent’, what does that mean? I have no doubt that if a young Jewish student was hissed at to mimic the sound of a gas chamber, they would find it upsetting.

"He may want to forget that, they won’t … he should seek those people out and go and apologise to them.”

Farage, meanwhile, has maintained that he “did not say the things that have been published in the Guardian aged 13, nearly 50 years ago.

"Isn’t it interesting? I am probably the most scrutinised figure in British politics, having been in public life for 32 years. Several books and thousands of stories have been written about me, but it is only now that my party is leading in the polls that these allegations come out. I will leave the public to draw their own conclusions about why that might be …

"We know that the Guardian wants to smear anybody who talks about the immigration issue. But the truth is that I have done more in my career to defeat extremism and far-right politics than anybody else in the UK, from my time fighting the BNP right up to today.”

In an opinion piece for the JC, published shortly after the Heaton Park shul terror attack in October, Farage lamented that antisemitism had “moved onto the streets and infected the institutions of our country”.

Reform UK has been contacted for comment.