The unearthed messages from Reform’s ‘sexist’ by-election candidate

A succession of social media posts claiming Russia was “well within their rights” to annex Crimea and that women “can’t drive or give directions” have been linked to Reform’s by-election candidate.

The past social media activity of Robert Kenyon – a 41-year-old self-employed plumber and Wigan councillor – has been under close scrutiny since he was selected by Nigel Farage for the Makerfield by-election on 18 June.

He will go up against Labour’s Andy Burnham, who has served as Mayor of Greater Manchester since 2017, and is widely expected to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the party leadership if he wins.

But Kenyon is making waves of his own. Since his selection as the candidate for Reform UK, a string of unearthed social media posts have been linked to him. These appear to demonstrate his views on Russia’s annexation of Crimea, abortion, women and Brexit.

A Reform UK spokesman said: “We fully back Cllr Kenyon. He is an excellent, local candidate who we are confident will be a superb MP for Makerfield.

“These comments were made before he was in politics. 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.”

The i Paper has not independently verified the contents of all the posts, some of which were first reported by The Times, The Daily Telegraph, and The Mirror.

Russia was ‘well within their rights’ to annex Crimea

The most recent social media post linked to Kenyon, reported by The Daily Telegraph on Wednesday, relates to comments made on an online forum in 2014, shortly after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Responding to a post describing the annexation as “democracy in action”, Kenyon appears to have written: “I agree totally, Russia are well within their rights to do what they have done, as we did with the Falklands.”

Defence minister Luke Pollard said Farage had “again chosen a candidate who promotes Kremlin talking points and makes excuses for [Vladimir] Putin’s unacceptable actions against Ukraine”.

A Reform spokesman told The Telegraph that Kenyon “at no point did… explicitly support or endorse Russia’s actions in Crimea” and that he was “fully opposed to Russia’s illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine”.

Abortion is the ‘legalised killing of babies’

The i Paper reported on Monday that posts on a rugby league forum, attributed to Kenyon and dated 2019, included the claim that abortion was “legalised killing of babies.”

In a later post on the same thread, Kenyon appears to write that women seeking abortions were “deciding to kill a baby inside the womb” and that the “majority [of abortions] are for vanity purposes like unwanted pregnancies”.

A 2022 post on the now-deleted @robkenyon1 X account stated: “Life begins at conception. Abortion is the cowardly act of murdering a defenceless baby… They don’t want babies? Use contraception.”

Labour Party chair Anna Turley said Kenyon was “not fit to represent Makerfield” and that the posts showed he would “want to strip away the protections in place to support women and their right to choose”.

A Reform spokesman said abortion was “a matter of conscience” and that the comments had been made before Kenyon entered politics.

Women ‘can’t ref, drive or give directions’

Posts on the same rugby league forum, reported by The Times on Tuesday, included remarks from 2011 and 2012 in which an account linked to Kenyon said that “women can’t ref, drive or give directions”. The account stated: “I’m sexist, sorry but I am.”

Other posts made derogatory remarks about English women’s appearance and a 2019 post criticised the use of women as pundits on Sky Sports rugby league coverage, saying they were “only there to tick a box”.

Separately, Hope Not Hate alleged that Kenyon had responded to a post containing graphic sexual language about television presenter Carol Vorderman, writing: “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking.”

Vorderman told The Mirror: “I want an apology from Rob Kenyon, to me, and to all the other people he’s abused online.”

Danny Kruger, Reform MP for East Wiltshire, described the Vorderman post as “clearly an inappropriate thing to say publicly” but told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that Kenyon had regarded it as a “private conversation”.

Pride events ‘shouldn’t be thrown in the faces’ of children

The Daily Mirror alleged on Tuesday that posts on the rugby league forum included a 2009 comment using a homophobic slur and a 2010 post suggesting that gay television presenters did “a lot more damage to the reputation of homosexuals” than a footballer’s offensive tweet.

A 2020 post, apparently responding to rugby club Wigan Warriors announcing a Pride Day fixture, said the club “shouldn’t have the issue thrown in their faces” and was directed at children with “impressionable minds”.

Another post the same year said LGBT people should “stop making a big song and dance about it” and accused them of “taking over other events”.

A Reform spokesman said: “Many of these comments were made nearly 20 years ago – well before Rob was in politics.”

He ‘woke up sh*****g himself’ after the Brexit vote

The Times reported on Tuesday that posts on the rugby league forum, dated 2019, showed an account linked to Kenyon writing: “So anyone who thinks I love Trump, voted Brexit, read the Daily Mail, live in the 1950s, a Tory and 103 is wrong. I’m none of the above.”

Another post reportedly said he had woken “the day after Brexit shitting himself to what was voted for,” while a further post praised the principle of EU free movement.

Reform denied this was Kenyon’s view, telling The Times that the Makerfield candidate “voted Leave in 2016 and is a proud Brexiteer” and said his later comments showed he had come to support Britain’s departure from the EU.

The party said the posts were consistent with Farage’s position that the EU “needs to be stripped right back.”

The i Paper has not been able to independently verify the posts attributed to Kenyon.

المصدر: iNews