UK AG urges far-right politician Nigel Farage to apologize for alleged antisemitic bullying as a teen

UK Attorney General Richard Hermer is calling on far-right British politician Nigel Farage to apologize for alleged antisemitic bullying as a teenager.

“Throughout his defensive responses to legitimate questions put to him, not once has Farage actually condemned antisemitism,” Hermer tells The Guardian, adding that the leader of Britain’s anti-immigration Reform party had “clearly deeply hurt” many people and has “constantly changed” his denials pf a report that he racially abused classmates during middle school and high school.

The Guardian reported last month that some of Farage’s contemporaries at school had accused him of making racist and antisemitic remarks, including that “Hitler was right.”

One classmate told the news outlet that 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.”

Farage told BBC News last week, “I’ve never directly racially abused anybody. No… Have I ever tried to take it out on any individual on the basis of where they’re from? No… I would never, ever do it in a hurtful or insulting way.”

“Have I said things 50 years ago that you could interpret as being banter in a playground, that you can interpret in the modern light of day in some sort of way? Yes,” Farage added.