\n<\/p>\n
A Reform UK mayoral candidate who said David Lammy should \u201cgo home to the Caribbean\u201d has suggested that at least eight other politicians from minority ethnic backgrounds do not have a primary loyalty towards the UK.<\/p>\n
Nigel Farage\u2019s party has so far refused to condemn Chris Parry, a retired naval rear admiral who has been picked to contest the now-postponed Hampshire and the Solent mayoral election for the party, over his comment about Lammy, the deputy prime minister.<\/p>\n
In a post in February, referring to a news story about the UK government supposedly considering talks about reparations for slavery \u2013 which ministers have in fact rejected \u2013 Parry is said to have written: \u201cLammy must go home to the Caribbean where his loyalty lies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Labour said the emergence of the other comments, all made since May this year, showed Reform had to act swiftly, saying he was \u201cdragging his party further into the gutter\u201d.<\/p>\n
The bulk of the comments by Parry, all made on X, involve him quote-retweeting posts by others about the politicians, some originating from far-right or openly anti-Islam accounts.<\/p>\n
In May he highlighted footage showing Anas Sarwar, the leader of Labour in Scotland, speaking at a 2022 event celebrating the 75th anniversary of Pakistan\u2019s independence, writing: \u201cSo many people in @UKLabour don\u2019t owe their primary loyalty to Britain.\u201d<\/p>\n
The next month, commenting about footage showing the Labour MP Naz Shah taking her parliamentary oath using the Qur\u2019an, he wrote: \u201cThat\u2019s OK, if she commits blasphemy by betraying the British people and demonstrating primary loyalty to another country.\u201d<\/p>\n
The same month he said of Humza Yousaf, the former first minister of Scotland: \u201cHis first loyalty is not to any country in the UK.\u201d<\/p>\n
In October, when the former Labour MP Zarah Sultana, who now represents Your Party, tweeted about a journalist\u2019s comment that she should be deported, Parry said: \u201cIt\u2019s because your first loyalty is not to the British people. Nothing to do with your religion or background. We don\u2019t trust you to defend our interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a post about footage showing Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, and the MP Dawn Butler, attending a Jamaica-themed party at the Labour conference, hosted by Butler, Parry said: \u201cYou really have to wonder where people\u2019s primary loyalty lies.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a recent post on X the mayoral candidate commented about a media interview in which Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, discussed her Muslim faith, adding: \u201cDoesn\u2019t her religion require her to show loyalty to her fellow Muslims before any country? Genuine question.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another post was about Kaukab Stewart, the Scottish equalities minister, in which Parry said: \u201cClearly her primary loyalty is not to Britain or Scotland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parry also questioned Lammy\u2019s loyalty to the UK on another occasion, again when he was foreign secretary. Commenting about a news story on policy towards the navy, he said: \u201cThis is what happens when you have someone whose primary loyalty is not to the UK as foreign secretary.\u201d<\/p>\n
At a press conference on Tuesday, Reform\u2019s deputy leader said he had seen this post and seemed to indicate that such sentiments could be viewed as an acceptable part of political debate. He said: \u201cAt the end of the day, David Lammy is a cabinet minister. Whether we think he\u2019s doing a good or bad job is just part of politics. That\u2019s day-to-day life. He will, I\u2019m sure, continue to claim he\u2019s doing a great job. We challenge him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Anna Turley, the Labour chair, said Farage \u201cneeded to throw Chris Parry out of Reform UK and drop him as a candidate nearly two weeks ago\u201d.<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cThe fact he didn\u2019t shows he\u2019s willing to turn a blind eye to racism in his party\u2019s senior ranks. It\u2019s falls far below the standards the public expect of political leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact Farage has failed to take any action against Chris Parry despite his first racist comments being exposed 12 days ago shows what a weak leader he is. He is dragging his party further into the gutter and is unfit for high office.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reform was contacted for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Reform UK mayoral candidate who said David Lammy should \u201cgo home to the Caribbean\u201d has suggested that at least eight other politicians from minority ethnic backgrounds do not have a primary loyalty towards the UK. Nigel Farage\u2019s party has so far refused to condemn Chris Parry, a retired naval rear admiral who has been<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38341,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[3134,456,8550,21013,414,21012,838,2315],"class_list":{"0":"post-38340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-social-issues","8":"tag-candidate","9":"tag-home","10":"tag-lammy","11":"tag-loyalty","12":"tag-mps","13":"tag-questioned","14":"tag-reform","15":"tag-told"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=38340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/38341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=38340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=38340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=38340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}