Reform UK’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election has faced backlash in recent weeks after a number of offensive comments made on social media were unearthed.
Robert Kenyon, a plumber and local councillor who stood as Reform’s candidate in the constituency at the 2024 general election, is taking on Labour’s Andy Burnham in Thursday’s by-election in the Greater Manchester seat.
A series of now-deleted social media posts and comments made on rugby league forums by accounts linked to Mr Kenyon have seen him dubbed “not fit to be an MP” and accused of sharing transphobic slurs, Covid misinformation and objectifying women.
However, Nigel Farage has said Reform UK is “unapologetic” about its candidate, telling a press conference earlier this month that the comments were “a few laddish things”.
The party leader told reporters: “These comments were posted a decade ago. They’ve been taken wildly out of context, but they’re the sort of comments that you won’t necessarily get if you’re an Oxford-educated career politician living in a nice postcode in London.”
Here we look at the comments that have drawn criticism.
Women can’t ‘ref, drive or give directions’
The Independent revealed that an account linked to Mr Kenyon wrote that women can’t “ref, drive or give directions” and declared: “I’m sexist, sorry but I am.”
Posts made on an online rugby league fan forum in the 2010s objectified European women’s bodies while saying English women “don’t care” and “just walk around with their fat bellies and odd shapes pushing a pram at 16 in their PJ’s”.
The user also said in an RLFans forum: “European women…all have really good figures and are good looking”, and responded to a post with links to images of women saying: “Wouldn’t get me off any of those with a bazooka.”
In 2019, responding to a discussion over women presenting matches on Sky, they wrote: “The women on the panel’s aren’t up to the job and only there to tick a box” and said women’s Super League players are “no where near the standard” to be commentating on games.
The remarks were made by an account under the username ‘post’, which says in other comments that their Twitter handle is @robkenyon1 and promotes Mr Kenyon’s book, The Blood Waltz.
In a now deleted post on X in 2019, the user also suggested he would “rank higher” than a female presenter and former player because he had “won the Champions League with Accrington Stanley on FIFA Career Mode”.
Post about Carol Vorderman, slurs and conspiracy theories
In posts made on a now-deleted X account between 2020 and 2022 and shared by campaigners Hope Not Hate, the @robkenyon1 account made offensive comments about women, peddled misinformation about the pandemic and engaged with a Holocaust denier.
In one post, the account shares a sexually explicit post sent to Carol Vorderman on her birthday, in which another user declared he wanted to perform a sexual act on the TV presenter.
Another user responded to the post, saying: “If you’re prepared to put this on a public forum, I would suggest that your computer drive probably needs checking.”
But @robkenyon1 replied: “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking.”
Ms Vorderman condemned the comments, telling The Mirror: “Fundamentally, Rob Kenyon is a misogynist.”
She added: “He’s not just being a lad, he’s being a disgusting online abuser who became a Reform councillor three weeks ago.”
A further post by the user said he had been blocked from the Sky Sports Rugby League Twitter page because he “said something about women’s rugby”.
The account also used transphobic slurs and, during the Covid-19 pandemic, peddled conspiracy theories about vaccinations.
Replying to someone who said the Covid vaccines “help a lot”, the account replied: “What a load of c***,” and compared Covid vaccination policies in Australia with Nazism.
It also suggested the media was “complicit” in “global tyranny” when responding to a post by Peter Sweden, a far-right influencer with a history of Holocaust denial.
It was also reported in The i Paper that Mr Kenyon previously described abortion as a “cowardly act of murdering a defenceless baby”, and elsewhere appeared to suggest women advocated for access to the procedure so they can “shag anyone they want and if they get caught they get a second chance”.
‘Degrading’ comments about TV anchor and remarks about The Saturdays
Mr Kenyon was also accused of making “degrading” comments about TV anchor Emma Crosby and a series of remarks about girl band The Saturdays, The Independent revealed.
Posting on an online rugby fan forum in the 2010s, the user wrote: “The Saturdays in nothing but a pair of Wigan home socks at the bottom of me bed. 2:D Alrilligghhhhttill Giggety giggetty”.
“Giggity giggity” is a catchphrase used by the character Glenn Quagmire from TV show Family Guy and is a slang term used to indicate sexual desire.
The series of posts, made in an RLFans forum, also mentioned “a picture of the Saturdays wearing nothing but her birthday suits”.
“Sorry Ernie She’s fit off GMTV, that new one Emma Crosby”, they wrote, adding that they were “getting a hardwang never mind a wetwang”.
“Jessica Ennis……shwing!”, the user also wrote, in an apparent reference to 1990s US comedy Wayne’s World.
He also compared former Wigan Warriors player Feka Paleaaesina to a “nice girlfriend who has put a bit of weight on”, adding: “You just don’t love them”.
Hitting out at those remarks, Labour chair Anna Turley wrote: “Robert Kenyon clearly has a problem with women. It’s staggering that Reform try and shrug comments like this off as locker room talk.
“It’s not – it’s degrading and completely unacceptable. He is completely unfit to be the next MP for Makerfield – women and girls can have no confidence he will stand up for them and he sets an appalling example for men and boys too.”
Russia’s annexation of Crimea
Mr Kenyon said that Russia was “within their rights” to invade Crimea, comparing it with the UK’s sovereignty claim over the Falkland Islands.
The Reform candidate agreed with a post which described Moscow’s annexation of the peninsula in March 2014 as “democracy in action”, The Telegraph reported.
In an online forum in March 2014, Mr Kenyon engaged with a post titled “Hypocrisy of the West regarding Ukraine in the sin bin”, where a member wrote: “The people of the Crimea want to be in Russia, for me that is democracy in action.
“The government should work for the people not the other way round. The people have spoken and they have what they want. The Falklands and Gibraltar, they want to stay British, so be it.”
Moscow’s illegal annexation of Crimea on 18 March 2014 was only recognised internationally by countries such as North Korea and Sudan.
By the time Russia annexed it, Crimea had been a part of Ukraine for 60 years.
According to The Telegraph, Mr Kenyon responded to the post, saying: “I agree totally, Russia are well within their rights to do what they have done as we did with the Falklands. However, will Latvia be next?”
A Reform UK spokesman told The Independent: “At no point did Rob explicitly support or endorse Russia’s actions in Crimea.
“He is fully opposed to Russia’s illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine.
“We fully back Cllr Kenyon. He is an excellent, local candidate who we are confident will be a superb MP for Makerfield.”
Reform’s response
Reform has stood by its candidate, describing some of the comments about women as “locker room banter” made before he entered politics.
A party spokesperson has said: “Cllr Kenyon made these comments before entering politics. We are confident that he is an excellent candidate who will be a superb local MP for Makerfield.
“Rob isn’t a polished, professional politician and doesn’t speak like one. That’s precisely why he’ll be a straight-talking, effective voice for normal working people in Makerfield.”
Appearing on a special Makerfield by-election episode of BBC’s Question Time earlier this month, Mr Kenyon admitted he has “made mistakes”.
Responding to a member of the audience who described him as “sexist”, he said: “I won’t accept that label, I mean a lot of the things have been said 15 years ago.
“I hold my hands up, I’ve made mistakes…
“I was brought up by a single parent and my grandma, who was a widow, and an older sister. So I was brought up by women.
“I’ve got nothing but respect for women, you know, so I think something that’s said, you know, 15 years ago, dragged up from an old rugby forum, you know, it’s completely taken out of context.
“And like I say, I’ve made mistakes, I’ve said things years ago that I wouldn’t say now and I definitely don’t believe that, on that point.”
Mr Kenyon added: “I’ve got nothing but respect for women.”
