Reform UK candidate Robert Kenyon has admitted making “crass” comments online after his past posts came under scrutiny during the Makerfield by-election campaign. He said the remarks were made before he entered politics.
The timing matters because Makerfield goes to the polls on Thursday 18 June, and the contest in the Greater Manchester seat is shaping up as a race between Andy Burnham and Kenyon. He is one of fourteen candidates on the ballot, and the scrutiny of his old posts has put a candidate who is trying to sell himself as an outsider under a brighter spotlight.
Kenyon, a plumber and local councillor, told the at a pub in the constituency that he was not a “career politician”. He said people would “feel listened to” if he became the MP, and that they would “feel like they had a voice now, whereas in the last 40 years they’ve not”. He also said voters wanted a “local lad” who lives in and knows the area.
The comments now being examined stretch beyond one line. On a defunct rugby league forum, Kenyon described Brexit as an economically damaging project promoted by politicians who “peddled the nationalistic pish”. He later said he had voted for Brexit and had “no recollection of saying that”. He was also asked about remarks linked to abortion and Ukraine, part of a wider search through what he wrote before he sought elected office.
The sharpest friction has come over his comments about Carol Vorderman. She has said she wants an apology after he responded to a sexually graphic post about her with a thumbs up emoji, a laughing emoji and the comment “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking”. Kenyon said he had “not made sexual remarks about Carol Vorderman” and described it as a “crass joke”, adding: “There might have been a few crass comments that I’ve said,” while also saying he was more worried about Labour’s positions on grooming gangs and the rights of transgender people.
Reform UK has said it backs Kenyon and has no plans to investigate him over his previous comments. That leaves the party hoping the row does not overwhelm its campaign in a seat created by the resignation of former MP Josh Simons, who stood down to make way for Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham to try to win the seat and return to Westminster. With polling day closing in, the question is not whether the posts will be revisited again, but how much they will matter to voters once they walk into the booth.
