Tice declines to condemn candidate who said Lammy should ‘go home’ to Caribbean

Reform UK’s deputy leader has declined to condemn comments by one of the party’s mayoral candidates who said David Lammy should “go home” to the Caribbean.

Richard Tice said he was “not familiar” with the remarks by Hampshire and the Solent mayoral candidate Chris Parry.

Reform has faced calls to drop Mr Parry, a retired Royal Navy officer, as a candidate after it emerged he had posted on X in February: “Lammy must go home to the Caribbean where (his) loyalty lies.”

Mr Lammy was born in London to Guyanese parents.

Asked about Mr Parry’s post at a press conference on Tuesday, Mr Tice said: “I’m not familiar with what was said.

“At the end of the day, David Lammy, he’s a Cabinet minister, whether we think he’s doing a good job or a bad job is just part of politics.

“That’s day-to-day life and he will, I’m sure, continue to claim he’s doing a great job. We challenge him.”

After Mr Parry’s comment was read out to him, Mr Tice declined to respond further, saying only: “I’ve given an answer.”

On Monday, Reform’s newest MP Danny Kruger also declined to condemn Mr Parry’s post, saying he would not comment “without knowing the context”.

Mr Kruger said Mr Parry was a “distinguished public servant” and it was “good to have his support for Reform”, but added he and the party “completely condemn any expression of racism”.

In an interview on TalkTV, Mr Parry said he would not “talk about” his post, saying people “should go to Twitter and see what was written and the context in which it happened”.

In response, Labour Party chairwoman Anna Turley wrote to Reform leader Nigel Farage calling on him to sack Mr Parry as a candidate and saying failure to do so would demonstrate he was willing to “turn a blind eye to racism”.

She said: “This is not difficult. Political disagreement over matters of policy is perfectly legitimate, but 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.”

The row comes as Mr Farage continues to face questions about allegations, which he denies, that he made racist and antisemitic remarks during his school days.

Asked on Tuesday whether he stood by previous comments that Mr Farage’s accusers were making things up, Mr Tice said: “It’s old news. We covered that a couple of weeks ago.

“We’re moving on. We’re dealing with today’s news and today’s issues around Send and looking forward.”