Farage tells Reform candidate who said David Lammy should ‘go home’ to Caribbean to apologise

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 has been 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 right-wing Conservative 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,” Mr Farage 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.

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“But I do think his comments on Lammy were over the top, and he should apologise for them.”

Reform came under pressure to drop Mr Parry, after it emerged he had posted on X (Twitter) in February: “Lammy must go home to the Caribbean where [his] loyalty lies.”

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

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.”

He also suggested that the primary loyalty of at least eight other politicians is not to the UK, including Labour MP Naz Shah and Your Party co-leader Zarah Sultana.

In October, 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.”

In an additional tweet, Mr Parry also described the dead right-wing former Tory politician Powell as “unfulfilled”.

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In his infamous 1968 “Rivers of Blood” speech, Powell used inflammatory language to criticise immigration to the UK and was sacked from the Conservative frontbench as a result.

Anna Turley, chair of the Labour Party, said the Reform leader had “failed to take any action on his mayoral candidate’s racist comments”.

She also criticised Mr Farage for not apologising to fellow school pupils who accused him of racism when they attended London private school Dulwich College in the 1970s.

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.”