The Makerfield by-election has been dominating the national news since Labour MP Josh Simons announced he would resign his seat on Thursday May 14th, to allow the Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham to contest the subsequent by-election and if he wins, perhaps challenge Keir Starmer to be Prime Minister.
Though the vote itself isn’t until June 18th, most pollsters are predicting a two-horse race between Burnham and the Reform UK candidate Robert Kenyon. Kenyon has been keen to present himself as a local plumber, and an “ordinary man from an ordinary place” (according to Reform MP Danny Kruger who is more mediocre than ordinary), but his campaign has been dominated by a series of bizarre and appalling scandals.
1. Kenyon’s Blatant Misogyny
In the video Kenyon made on Tuesday May 19th to announce his candidacy the candidate declared that Makerfield was “the only place I’ve ever wanted to represent.”
It may come as a surprise to Kenyon that roughly half of Makerfield’s electorate are women. He appears to believe that women are unable to “ref, drive or give directions” according to posts on a now deleted social media account, exposed by the newspaper, The Independent. Posts discovered by The i Paper also showcased Mr Kenyon claiming that women who have abortions do so for “vanity purposes” so that they can “shag anyone they want.”
He has yet to apologise for any of these comments.
Can Reform shift this clog?
2. Reform’s Defence of Kenyon’s Blatant Misogyny
You might think a candidate who thinks women have abortions for the sheer joy of it and that the Saudi DVLA might be on to something, wants sacking. Not so Reform UK!
A Reform spokesperson has defended Kenyon’s previous social media activity saying that “these comments were made before councillor Kenyon entered politics. Rob is perfectly entitled to his own personal opinions on abortion.” Before going on to say, “Rob isn’t a polished professional politician and doesn’t speak like one.”
This was specifically in response to The Independent uncovering comments Kenyon had posted on a rugby fans forum, saying that women presenting rugby on TV “aren’t up to the job and only there to tick a box.” Kenyon then declared “I’m sexist, sorry but I am.”
So apologies are possible?
3. Kenyon’s Defence of Other People’s Blatant Misogyny
I’m noticing a bit of a theme here…
While Kenyon’s election rival Rebecca Shepherd of Restore Britain has been endorsed by American billionaire Elon Musk (possibly hyperlink the other listicle here) , Kenyon himself has been attracting more celebrity critics than supporters.
One of these is media personality Carol Vorderman, who called Kenyon a “cowardly man” over his decision to delete the social media accounts which included a range of misogynist comments. One of these was aimed at Vorderman herself, where Kenyon commented “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking” under another user’s post which sexualised Vorderman, in 2021.
Danny Kruger’s explanation of Kenyon’s comments said that the candidate was that “He was not a politician at the time, he was an ordinary man from an ordinary place”. This did not satisfy Vorderman, who told The Guardian that Kenyon’s remarks were “public comments on a public platform and if Danny Kruger thinks online abuse is ok, then Reform are therefore stating online abuse against women is ok, then all women in Makerfield need to know that.”
Countdownfall?
4. Lockdown lover?
When he first announced that they had applied to the Electoral Commission to change the name of what was then the Brexit Party to Reform UK, Nigel Farage said that the party would campaign against Covid-19 restrictions.
This followed a series of lockdowns starting in March of that year, which featured extended bans on all non-essential outdoor activities. Far from opposing these restrictions, Robert Kenyon seemed at the time to want them enforced far more severely.
On April 5th 2020, at the height of the first Covid-19 lockdown, Kenyon commented on a picture of a police officer walking towards two people sitting on a beach eating chips. He declared that the officer should “Boot the chips out of their hands then water board the lad.”
Glub glub!
5. Flu Turn?
It didn’t take Kenyon long to pivot away from his belief that those breaking Covid-19 restrictions should be illegally tortured, to the point where he seemed to believe the whole plandemic pandemic was part of a government conspiracy theory.
Kenyon described an explanation of how vaccines stop the spread of a disease through a population as “a load of crap” and said that the media were complicit in “global tyranny” in December 2021.
He’d previously responded to news that Australia’s highly successful Covid-19 vaccine rollout had reached 95% of citizens aged 12 or over by October 2021 by saying “The Aussies have gone full Nazi on this, its disgraceful.” (Yes, “its” should have had an apostrophe in it). As well as later suggesting that people should “take vitamins” and “stop having booster vaccines” in February 2023.
A plumber and a doctor!
6. His Former Facebook Friends
On the first full day of Robert Kenyon’s by-election campaign the campaigning organisation Searchlight revealed that Reform’s new candidate was Facebook friends with fascist campaigner Gary Raikes.
Gary Raikes is the leader of the New British Union (NBU), a fascist group that claims to be a revival of Oswald Mosley’s British Union of Fascists and is a former member of the British National Party and Britain First. The NBU has voiced its support for Greece’s neo-Nazi criminal organisation Golden Dawn, while Raikes himself has encouraged NBU members to dress in Blackshirt style uniforms.
Reform have said that the Facebook friendship does not mean that Kenyon shared Raikes’ views, and that the pair never spoke, or communicated on the platform. Kenyon was one of 41 Reform UK candidates that were Facebook friends with Gary Raikes ahead of the 2024 General Election.
It’s complicated!
7. His Current Political Friends
Kenyon decided only 12 days after being elected as a Councillor, that he would rather be an MP. Kenyon’s nomination ahead of the May 7th local elections was seconded by councillor Steve Jones, who resigned from what is now Kenyon’s seat in January 2018, after being convicted for drunk-driving, and cautioned for assault, in December 2017.
Jones has twice attempted to resign from the council before later reversing his decision, and has fought two legal battles attempting to overturn his own resignation, even winning one of them in 2018.
Jones remains as a councillor despite pleading guilty to a case of actual bodily harm, perpetrated against his wife, in September 2022.
On theme…
The Funny One: His Thoughts on Brexit
Coronavirus lockdowns aren’t the only major Reform policy that Robert Kenyon has changed his mind on. A report from The Times suggests that Kenyon did not vote to leave the European Union at the 2016 EU referendum.
The article claims that, in 2019, Kenyon said that “Anyone who thinks I love Trump, voted Brexit… is wrong… I woke up the day after Brexit s***ing myself to what was voted for”.
Reform UK’s leader Nigel Farage has been a public supporter of Donald Trump since he first announced he was standing for the US Presidency in 2015.
According to renowned pollster Sir John Curtice, Makerfield voted 66% for Brexit.
But other than that, Reform UK’s candidate vetting seems to be great!
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