Reform UK’s candidate for Hampshire mayor called for a British investigative journalist who exposed key elements of the UK’s role in the Gaza genocide to be arrested for “incitement to violence”.

In ‘obsessive’ and ‘unhinged’ posts on social media, former senior Royal Navy officer and current Times Radio podcast co-host Dr Chris Parry called Matt Kennard a “traitor”.

Kennard has published groundbreaking stories on RAF spy flights over Gaza, as well as other elements of British complicity in Israel’s atrocities.

Reform made rear admiral Parry its pick for the Hampshire and Solent mayoral contest earlier this month, despite a history of racist and misogynistic social media activity, including posting that justice secretary David Lammy should “go home to the Caribbean where loyalty lies”. The mayoral election has been delayed until 2028.

Parry published posts on X calling Kennard a traitor at least 12 times in the last year.

Over the summer, he said the journalist “needs to be arrested for incitement to violence” after Kennard posted about Keir Starmer’s government welcoming the commander of the Israeli airforce and asked: “How long will we all tolerate this?”

Parry also wrote, “I hope this traitor gets just desserts” in response to another post from Kennard about the Labour government’s complicity in Israel’s genocide.

Kennard told Novara Media that he initially thought the attacks were from “another unhinged activist” with an apparent “obsession”. But Parry’s selection as a mayoral candidate “makes his dangerous rhetoric and constant attacks on journalists like me more important”, he said.

In February, the would-be mayor shared a post by Kennard about British Shadow R1 spy planes collecting intelligence over Gaza with the comment “this guy needs an intrusive search if he tries to enter the UK”.

An investigation by Action on Armed Violence for Declassified UK – where Kennard used to work – found in March that the Royal Air Force had flown more than 500 surveillance flights over Gaza from its base in Akrotiri, Cyprus.

By August, the number of flights had reportedly exceeded 600. The Ministry of Defence maintains these flights were “solely to locate hostages” but their timing and frequency have been linked to multiple major Israeli massacres since 7 October 2023.

Kennard said Parry “started spamming me on X” shortly after he began publishing stories about  the UK’s military and intelligence role in the genocide.

Israel has killed more than 70,000 people in Gaza in the past two years.

“Reform is leading the polls and its embrace of someone like Chris Parry is evidence it’s a party that welcomes and promotes lunatics who think journalists doing public interest reporting should be arrested,” Kennard said.

“Parry is also a former senior officer in the Royal Navy, which is a window into the types of people with their hands on bombs and guns in our armed services,” Kennard added. “He is a symptom of a drift to the far-right which is global, and endangers Britain as well.”

Rear Admiral Parry served in the Royal Navy for over 30 years, receiving a CBE in 2004. He regularly co-hosts Times Radio’s History Undone podcast. During his naval career, he commanded aviation flights, a destroyer, an amphibious assault ship, the UK’s Amphibious Task Group, and the Maritime Warfare Centre.

When asked whether he had written that Lammy should “go home to the Caribbean” in a TalkTV interview, Parry said “you shouldn’t believe everything you read in the newspapers”. Parry’s tweet about Lammy is still available on X.

Female public figures – particularly MPs – have been a particular focus of Parry’s attacks on social media. Over the past year, he has called female MPs “harpies” – often used as a derogatory term for a hectoring or unpleasant woman – in at least 20 posts on X.

Parry referred to MP Zarah Sultana as a “perverted harpy”, chancellor Rachel Reeves as a “vicious harpy” and an “ideologically corrupted and incompetent harpy”, then-home secretary Yvette Cooper as a “lying harpy”, science secretary Liz Kendal as a “totalitarian harpy”, MP Natalie Fleet as an “equivocating harpy”, and education secretary Bridget Phillipson as a “gaslighting harpy”, a “Marxist harpy” and a “deceitful, spiteful harpy”.

Parry called writer and broadcaster Stella Tsantekidou a “low octane bimbo” over a GB News interview she gave criticising US president Donald Trump in September.

Parry also reposted an image depicting parliament filled with MPs in traditional Islamic dress and wrote “there won’t be any women”. In November, he posted that Islamophobia “does not exist. Same with unicorns and fairies”.

“The rest of the world should take note,” Kennard said. “His only qualm with me is revealing the extent of his former employer’s participation in the Gaza genocide. As he appears to support the genocide, it is unclear why he would take umbrage at me bringing the UK’s role out into the public. He should be proud of it.”

Reform’s candidates have been embroiled in numerous scandals. An account linked to the party’s candidate for Doncaster mayor, Alexander Jones, was revealed to have sent supportive messages to misogynist influencer Andrew Tate – who is facing charges of human trafficking and rape – urging him to “fight the good fight”.

Jack Aaron, who is in charge of the party’s candidate vetting process, said Hitler was “brilliant” at inspiring people.

In the run-up to last year’s general election, the Reform candidate for Bexhill and Battle was found to have said Britain should have been neutral against Hitler and that women are the “sponging gender” and should be denied healthcare.

Farage said in July that the party had been “professionalised” and “professional vetting” is now in place.

Reform and Chris Parry have been approached for comment.

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