Calls for Reform UK to sack mayoral candidate after telling the deputy PM to "go home" to the Caribbean

Reform UK MP Danny Kruger said on Monday it was up to the party's leadership to decide whether to continue supporting Chris Parry, a retired Navy rear admiral, who was chosen to run as the party's candidate in the Hampshire and the Solent mayoral election.

Mr Kruger also suggested Mr Parry was technically not the candidate at the moment, because the election in which he is due to stand is among those postponed until 2028, despite his party’s assurances earlier this month that he was.

Mr Parry posted on X last year that Mr Lammy, who was born in London to Guyanese parents, should "go home to the Caribbean " where his "loyalty lies".

Mr Kruger said he could not comment without knowing the "context", but called Mr Parry a "distinguished public servant" and said it was "good to have his support for Reform".

Labour said it was "staggering" that Mr Farage has not taken any action and that there is no "context" that can excuse "telling a black British man from London to 'go home to the Caribbean'".

Mr Lammy referred to the post in his own tweet last week, as he urged Clacton MP Mr Farage to "stamp out" hate in his party.

Mr Lammy said he had been sent a news story about the Reform UK candidate's post.

He wrote: "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."

Earlier today (Monday) Mr Kruger said he was not aware of the details of what Mr Parry had posted, but that he and the party "completely condemn any expression of racism".

"Nigel Farage has taken very clear action against a ... small number of, let's say, members and activists and councillors who have disgraced the party in that way."

Pressed further on whether he would still support him as a mayoral candidate, he said: " I'm afraid to say, without knowing the context of them and without having understood what has been said, I can't comment in detail on that.

"That is one for Nigel and the party leadership to decide, but I do recognise Chris Parry is a very distinguished public servant and it's good to have his support for Reform.

"And I'm sorry to say that he's not the candidate at the moment because the mayoralty election has been postponed, so there is no election but, but that's something we'll have to get back to you on."

However a statement from Reform UK on December 4 ‘clarified that Rear Admiral Chris Parry will remain as the party’s candidate for Mayor of Hampshire and the Solent in the delayed mayoral election which is now scheduled for May 2028’.

At the time a Reform UK spokesman said: “We are delighted that Dr Parry will remain as the Reform UK mayoral candidate for the delayed combined authority election.

“Despite the disappointing news that over seven million people have been unjustly robbed of their vote, our campaigning in the region will continue.”

Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley MP said: "It's staggering that ten days after these racist comments were first reported, Nigel Farage is still refusing to take action.

"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 and sack his candidate immediately.

"Reform want to drag our politics to a dark place and this inaction shows why they are not fit for high office."

Mr Parry, who has lived and worked in Portsmouth for all his life, was an aviator and warfare officer in the Royal Navy and saw active combat in the Falklands War.