Farage under pressure to sack Reform candidate as he doubles down on claim Lammy should ‘go home’ to Caribbean
Nigel Farage is under pressure to sack former Reform UK admiral chosen as Hampshire mayor after doubling down on David Lammy’s “loyalties”
Mr Farage sided with Chris Parry, 72, after he suggested deputy prime minister David Lammy, who was born and raised in London, should “return home” to the Caribbean, where his “loyalties lie”.
Despite widespread condemnation, Mr Parry has now doubled down on his original comment with a post on X (formerly Twitter) defending his original comment: “Well, home is where the heart is. That’s all that matters.”
The comedian and actor similarly attacked Sir Lenny Henry when he backed calls for Britain to pay £19 trillion in slavery reparations.
Mr Parry shared: “Where is his primary loyalty?”
In another tweet in March, Parry described Birmingham as a “failed colony”.
Commenting on Keir Starmer ordering an emergency COBRA meeting to deal with the Birmingham bin attacks, he wrote: “Stupid and unnecessarily dilutes the importance of COBRA. Just put this failing colony into special measures.”
Mr Parry, a former Royal Navy Rear Admiral, also described his four female colleagues as “harpies” and suggested parliament would be filled with Muslim MPs by 2035.
Labor leader Anna Turley said: Independent Mr Farage must now drop the ticket for the postponed Hampshire mayoral election in 2028.
He said: “How big does Chris Parry’s mountain of racist and deeply offensive comments have to be before Nigel Farage kicked him out of Reform? It’s disgraceful.”
“Farage’s refusal to take action against racism in his party shows just how dark a place he has led politics. He should finally drop Chris Parry as a candidate, kick him out of his Party and apologize for not taking action sooner.”
Mr Farage himself faced accusations of racism while at school. Among the allegations were that he said “Hitler was right” and that he imitated the hissing sounds of the gas chamber.
Mr Farage said he had never been “maliciously” racist or antisemitic and, when asked about the allegations, said he had made nonsense at a recent BBC press conference about 1970s comedian Bernard Manning.
Mr Parry’s scathing attack on Mr Lammy was not isolated last week, with Reform’s council leader in Staffordshire, Ian Cooper, stating that “no foreign-born or first-generation immigrant should be allowed to sit in Parliament”, referring to Mr Lammy.
Although Mr Cooper has been kicked out of Reform, Mr Parry remains the party’s candidate in Hampshire.
Another Reform councilor, Chris Large, refused to endorse a comment describing Mr Lammy as “another non-thoroughbred greedy”.
Responding to comments made earlier, Mr Lammy issued a personal challenge to Mr Farage: “I will never be afraid of racism. But I will call it what it is. Nigel Farage, you need to clean up your party and stamp out 1950s-style hatred.”
Independent Reform UK has been approached for comment.
