Nigel Farage has told a Reform mayoral candidate who said David Lammy should “go home” to the Caribbean to apologise for his remarks.
The Reform UK leader was under pressure to sack Chris Parry, Reform’s candidate for the Hampshire and the Solent mayoralty, after he made remarks about the “loyalties” of Mr Lammy and praised Enoch Powell.
The retired Naval officer has since doubled down on what Labour has described as his “racist and grossly offensive” remarks, as senior Reform figures have been urged to condemn him.
Asked whether the social media posts made Mr Parry a good representative of Reform, Mr Farage said they were “over the top” and that he should apologise.
“He also criticised quite strongly many white politicians, called them unpatriotic and suggested they went to live in other countries,” he told reporters.
“Look, some of his comments are a bit rich. I get that. He is intensely patriotic. He’s risen to the rank of rear admiral, he’s given enormous service to this country.
“But I do think his comments on Lammy were over the top, and he should apologise for them.”
Despite being widely condemned after his initial comments, Mr Parry later doubled down, posting on X: “Well, home is where the heart is. That’s the point.”
An additional tweet, Mr Parry also described the dead rightwing former Tory politician Enoch Powell as “unfulfilled”.
In 1968 Powell made the infamous “Rivers of Blood” speech about the impact of black migrants in the UK warning it would lead to violence on the streets and opposing anti-discrimination laws. The speech has for many gone down as a benchmark of racism in the UK although others claimed it was misinterpreted.
Anna Turley, the chairwoman of the Labour Party, said the Reform leader had “failed to take any action on his mayoral candidate’s racist comments”.
She told The Independent last month: “How big does the mountain of racist and grossly offensive comments Chris Parry has made have to get before Nigel Farage throws him out of Reform? It’s disgraceful.
“Farage’s refusal to take action against racism in his party shows what a dark place he’s dragging politics to. He should finally drop Chris Parry as a candidate, kick him out of his party, and apologise for failing to take action sooner.”
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