Reform candidate who told David Lammy to ‘go home’ questioned other politicians’ loyalty to UK

Nigel Farage’s party facing calls to drop retired naval officer

A Reform candidate who said the deputy prime minister David Lammy should “go home to the Caribbean” also suggested that the primary loyalty of at least eight other politicians is not to the UK.

The party’s deputy leader, Richard Tice, declined to condemn comments by Chris Parry earlier this week, saying he was “not familiar” with the remarks by the Hampshire and Solent mayoral candidate.

The party is under pressure to drop Mr Parry, a retired Royal Navy officer, after it emerged he had posted on X (Twitter) in February: “Lammy must go home to the Caribbean where [his] loyalty lies.”

(Reform UK)

Mr Lammy, who was born in and grew up in north London, the appalling racism he had to endure as a child and teenager.

It has now emerged that Mr Parry made a series of similar comments on X earlier this year about other politicians.

In June, commenting about footage showing the Labour MP Naz Shah taking her parliamentary oath using the Quran, he wrote: “That’s OK, if she commits blasphemy by betraying the British people and demonstrating primary loyalty to another country.”

In October, in response to a social media post by Your Party co-leader Zarah Sultana on a journalist’s comment that she should be deported, Mr Parry said: “It’s because your first loyalty is not to the British people. Nothing to do with your religion or background. We don’t trust you to defend our interests.”

In the same month, above a post of footage showing London mayor Sir Sadiq Khan and the MP Dawn Butler attending a Jamaica-themed party at Labour’s annual conference, he wrote: “You really have to wonder where people’s primary loyalty lies.”

Richard Tice said he was ‘not familiar’ with remarks by the Reform UK mayoral candidate (PA)

And above a post on an interview in which the home secretary Shabana Mahmood discussed her Muslim faith, he said: “Doesn’t her religion require her to show loyalty to her fellow Muslims before any country? Genuine question.”

On another post about Kaukab Stewart, the Scottish equalities minister, he said: “Clearly her primary loyalty is not to Britain or Scotland.”

Comments were also made about Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar and Humza Yousaf, the former first minister of Scotland, according to The Guardian.

David Lammy (PA)

Anna Turley, the Labour chair, said Mr Farage “needed to throw Chris Parry out of Reform UK and drop him as a candidate nearly two weeks ago”.

She added: “The fact he didn’t shows he’s willing to turn a blind eye to racism in his party’s senior ranks. It falls far below the standards the public expect of political leaders.

“The fact that Farage has failed to take any action against Chris Parry despite his first racist comments being exposed 12 days ago, shows what a weak leader he is. He is dragging his party further into the gutter and is unfit for high office.”

Reform declined to comment.