Nigel Farage is under pressure to sack the former Royal Navy rear admiral that Reform UK picked as its candidate for mayor of Hampshire after he doubled down on remarks about the “loyalties” of David Lammy and praised Enoch Powell.
Mr Farage has stood by Chris Parry, 72, after he suggested that deputy prime minister Mr Lammy, who was born and brought up in London, should “go home” to the Caribbean where his “loyalties lie”.
But despite being widely condemned, Mr Parry has now defended his original comment, posting on X (Twitter): “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.
Mr Farage has also praised Powell calling him a “political hero”.
In a separate tweet Mr Parry also attacked Sir Lenny Henry in a similar way when the comedian and actor supported calls for the UK to pay £19 trillion in slavery reparations.
Mr Parry posted: “Where does his primary loyalty lie?”
Another tweet in March saw Mr Parry describe Birmingham as “a failed colony”.
Commenting on Sir Keir Starmer ordering an emergency Cobra meeting to deal with the Birmingham bin strikes, he posted: “Stupid and unnecessarily diluting importance of Cobra. Just take this failed colony into special measures.”
Mr Parry also described four female colleagues as “harpies” and suggested parliament would be filled with Muslim MPs by 2035.
Labour chair Anna Turley told The Independent that Mr Farage now needs to ditch the candidate for the postponed Hampshire mayoral election in 2028.
She said: “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 faced accusations of racism when he was at school. Among the allegations were claims he said “Hitler was right” and mimicked gas chamber hissing noises.
Mr Farage said that he had never been racist or antisemitic with “malice” and ended up having a rant at the BBC about 1970s comedian Bernard Manning at a press conference recently when asked about the allegations.
In the past week, Ian Cooper, Reform’s council leader in Staffordshire, stated 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 still remains the party’s candidate in mayoral Hampshire.
Another Reform councillor, Chris Large, has denied endorsing a comment describing Mr Lammy as “just another greedy non-thoroughbred”.
Hitting out at the comments before, Mr Lammy issued a personal challenge 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 comment.
