Nigel Farage is below stress to sack the previous Royal Navy rear admiral that Reform UK picked as its candidate for mayor of Hampshire after he doubled down on remarks concerning the “loyalties” of David Lammy and praised Enoch Powell.
Mr Farage has stood by Chris Parry, 72, after he recommended that deputy prime minister Mr Lammy, who was born and introduced up in London, ought to “go home” to the Caribbean the place his “loyalties lie”.
But regardless of being extensively condemned, Mr Parry has now defended his authentic remark, posting on X (Twitter): “Well, home is where the heart is. That’s the point.”
An extra tweet, Mr Parry additionally described the lifeless rightwing former Tory politician Enoch Powell as “unfulfilled”.
In 1968 Powell made the notorious “Rivers of Blood” speech concerning the influence of black migrants within the UK warning it could result in violence on the streets and opposing anti-discrimination legal guidelines. The speech has for a lot of gone down as a benchmark of racism within the UK though others claimed it was misinterpreted.
Mr Farage has additionally praised Powell calling him a “political hero”.
In a separate tweet Mr Parry additionally attacked Sir Lenny Henry in an identical means when the comic and actor supported requires the UK to pay £19 trillion in slavery reparations.
Mr Parry posted: “Where does his primary loyalty lie?”
Another tweet in March noticed Mr Parry describe Birmingham as “a failed colony”.
Commenting on Sir Keir Starmer ordering an emergency Cobra assembly to cope with the Birmingham bin strikes, he posted: “Stupid and unnecessarily diluting importance of Cobra. Just take this failed colony into special measures.”
Mr Parry additionally described 4 feminine colleagues as “harpies” and recommended parliament could be crammed with Muslim MPs by 2035.
Labour chair Anna Turley instructed The Independent that Mr Farage now must ditch the candidate for the postponed Hampshire mayoral election in 2028.
She mentioned: “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.”
It comes as Mr Farage himself has confronted accusations of racism when he was at college. Among the allegations had been claims he mentioned “Hitler was right” and mimicked gasoline chamber hissing noises.
Mr Farage mentioned that he had by no means been racist or antisemitic with “malice” and ended up having a rant on the BBC about Nineteen Seventies comic Bernard Manning at a press convention just lately when requested concerning the allegations.
In the previous week, Ian Cooper, Reform’s council chief in Staffordshire, said in reference to Mr Lammy that “no foreign national or first-generation migrant should be allowed to sit in parliament”.
While Mr Cooper has been thrown out of Reform, Mr Parry nonetheless stays the get together’s candidate in mayoral Hampshire.
Another Reform councillor, Chris Large, has denied endorsing a remark describing Mr Lammy as “just another greedy non-thoroughbred”.
Hitting out on the feedback earlier than, Mr Lammy issued a private problem to Mr Farage: “I will never be cowed by racism. But I will call it what it is. Nigel Farage, you need to clean up your party and stamp out this 1950s-style hate.”
The Independent has approached Reform UK for remark.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/nigel-farage-reform-lammy-racism-parry-b2888253.html