Pressure grows on Farage to sack Reform’s Hampshire mayoral hopeful

Dr Parry, a retired Royal Navy rear admiral and Reform UK’s mayoral candidate for the newly proposed Hampshire and Solent authority, has come under fire over controversial posts on X, formerly known as Twitter.

In February, he suggested that David Lammy MP, who was foreign secretary at the time, “must go home to the Caribbean where his loyalties lie”.

The comments have sparked outrage across Hampshire and nationally, with Richard Tice, the party’s deputy leader, refusing to condemn them yesterday.

In a letter to Mr Farage, Labour chair Anna Turley MP said that although the remarks were first reported more than a week ago, “your party has yet to take any action”.

She referenced a TalkTV appearance in which Mr Parry declined to comment on the post, instead urging viewers to “see the context in which it happened”, while adding that “if you are the Foreign Secretary of this country your primary loyalty must be to this country”.

When asked whether he believed Mr Lammy’s primary loyalty was to the UK, Mr Parry replied: “Ask him”.

Ms Turley said Mr Parry had been given the opportunity to withdraw, explain and apologise for his comments but chose “instead to suggest that it is up to Mr Lammy to say where his loyalties lie”.

“This is not difficult,” she wrote, adding that while political disagreements are legitimate, “calling into question the loyalties of a politician on the basis of his ethnicity is racist”.

“Telling a black British man from London to ‘go home to the Caribbean’ is racist. It should have no place in our politics, and no place in your party.”

She also questioned Reform UK’s treatment of Ian Cooper, the former leader of Staffordshire County Council, whose membership was revoked after he was accused of making racist comments online.

“It is not clear why Mr Cooper’s racism is unacceptable to Reform UK while Mr Parry’s is.”

She added that if Mr Farage takes racism seriously he must remove Mr Parry from the party and failure to do so would “demonstrate that you are prepared to turn a blind eye to racism when it suits you, and drag your party further into the gutter.”

Stephen Morgan, Labour MP for Portsmouth South added: “No matter what Reform’s senior leadership say, telling a black British man from London to ‘go home to the Caribbean’ is racist, and no ‘context’ can excuse it.

“Nigel Farage should stop turning a blind eye to racism in his party both nationally and in our area and sack his candidate immediately.

“Reform wants to cause division and drag our politics to a dark place. This inaction shows why they are not fit for high office”.

Reform UK was approached for comment.