{"id":491433,"date":"2026-03-23T20:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/491433\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T20:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T20:30:08","slug":"reform-mayoral-candidate-likens-jewish-community-group-to-islamists-on-horseback-reform-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/491433\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform mayoral candidate likens Jewish community group to \u2018Islamists on horseback\u2019 | Reform UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Reform UK<\/a> mayoral candidate has described members of a Jewish neighbourhood watch group as \u201ccosplayers\u201d and likened them to \u201cIslamists on horseback\u201d in comments made after an attack on ambulances run by a Jewish charity.<\/p>\n

Chris Parry, who remains Reform\u2019s mayoral candidate for Hampshire despite a previous controversy<\/a> in which he said David Lammy should \u201cgo home\u201d to the Caribbean, made the comments on Monday about Shomrim, a group of volunteers who safeguard communities including Orthodox Jewish families.<\/p>\n

Parry, a retired rear admiral, retweeted a post on X by Catherine Blaiklock, a co-founder of the Brexit party, hours after news of the attack on the ambulances in north London emerged.<\/p>\n

Shomrim works alongside Hatzola, the charity ambulance service that was targeted by arsonists early on Monday morning and provides emergency medical response and transportation to hospitals for both Jewish and non-Jewish people.<\/p>\n

Police said on Monday that counter-terrorism officers were leading an investigation into the arson attack on four ambulances.<\/p>\n

\u201cCan Christian\u2019s [sic] in Britain set up their own police and patrol certain neighbourhoods?\u201d said Blaiklock, who posted a picture of a number of Shomrim vehicles.<\/p>\n

Parry shared the post, adding: \u201cRemember that these cosplayers have no more jurisdiction or legal authority than ordinary citizens.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he was challenged over the original post\u2019s characterisation of Shomrim, Parry replied<\/a>: \u201cThey are a community organisation, not a legal entity. It\u2019s the same with Islamists on horseback. But if it offends you, I\u2019ll remove it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The politician, who is set to stand in Hampshire and the Solent in 2028, apologised<\/a> for his \u201cclumsily worded\u201d post on X about Lammy in January. He had said the deputy prime minister, who was born in London to Guyanese parents, should \u201cgo home to the Caribbean\u201d where his \u201cloyalty lies\u201d.<\/p>\n

Contacted by the Guardian about his comments on Shomrim on Monday, Parry said: \u201cMost people on X commenting seem to be confusing various community action groups with the real police. Keen that people understand that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rabbi Herschel Gluck, the president of Shomrim, described Parry\u2019s comments as \u201cignorant\u201d of the work that the organisation carried out.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt shows a level of bias and ignorance which I\u2019m surprised at given that this is a politician who aspires to be a mayor. These types of comments are deeply strange, to put it mildly,\u201d Gluck said. \u201cWe work on a voluntary basis with all sections of the community and have a very close relationship with the police, who are very appreciative of our role.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that Shomrim volunteers were currently on higher alert in the wake of the arson attacks at the weekend and had stepped up patrols.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Reform UK mayoral candidate has described members of a Jewish neighbourhood watch group as \u201ccosplayers\u201d and likened…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":491434,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":{"0":"post-491433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491433"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491433\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/491434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}