Reform’s man in Makerfield

I spoke with Rob Kenyon on Bank Holiday Monday. The 41-year-old plumber, and father of two was announced as the Reform candidate for the Makerfield by-election last Tuesday, and has already faced a barrage of criticism from Labour, Hope Not Hate, and Restore’s Rupert Lowe, with particular attention being drawn to posts he made on Twitter and his apparent connection on Facebook with fascist campaigner Gary Raikes. Raikes is leader of the New British Union, a political group which has used the slogan “restoring faith in fascism”.

When we spoke, Kenyon first discussed the Twitter posts, which included remarks on the Covid booster vaccine, climate change (which he described as “a middle class problem”), saying he thought Labour “were the party for trannys” (sic) and an exchange about Carol Vorderman. This has attracted the most criticism, with Vorderman taking to Instagram to label Kenyon a misogynist. 

During the exchange, in December 2021, a user posted “Happy birthday Carol. My god I’d love to smell and lick your a***hole”. This was quote tweeted by ex-SAS man Chris Ryan, who commented “If you’re prepared to put this 👇👇 on a public form, I would suggest that your computer drive probably needs checking”. Kenyon replied to Ryan, writing: “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking Chris 🤣👍”.

When I asked Kenyon about the posts which he’s been criticised for, he said “the majority of people who use Twitter just express their opinions on whatever pops up on their feed”. He added that, “if you don’t want polished and authentic” politicians:

… you’re going to get rough around the edges, and that’s what I am. I don’t pretend to be perfect. I don’t pretend to be polished. Anyone who’s ever learned to be an electrician will get electric shocks, plumbers will leave leaks, joiners will cut their fingers, painters will spill pain. And I’m no different. I’m not perfect, I’m not polished. 

Kenyon did reject any suggestion that he was an anti-vaxxer, making it clear that he has “had the COVID vaccine” and that his children are “up to date with every vaccine”, but didn’t comment specifically on the other tweets.

Turning to the Gary Raikes allegations, Kenyon was eager to answer, saying “it’s nice to be able to have my say on this because for the past two years it’s been thrown in my face”. He said that during the 2024 General Election campaign he “decided to create a campaign Facebook profile — not a personal one, just for that election” and was soon “getting 50 to 100 friend requests” [a day], and he “accepted about 1,000 people within a week” of which he knew “a handful”. According to Kenyon, the first he learned about Raikes’s identity and political beliefs was “about a week later”, when he “saw an article in the newspaper while I was on holiday”, which stated that Raikes was friends on Facebook with 41 of Reform’s candidates. Kenyon explains that he didn’t have a clue who he was. “As soon as I was alerted to who he was, and his background, he was removed within seconds.” Going further, Kenyon told me that he “had no contact whatsoever” with Raikes, “didn’t know what he looked like”, and had “never met him”. Kenyon also described Raikes’ politics as “totally opposite to what I stand for — abhorrent views”.

What does Kenyon stand for then? “Family, community and country. You look after your family first, then your community, then your country. All I want is to uphold law and order, strong borders, [making it] beneficial to work [with] lower tax, stronger armed forces, tougher policing — just what I’d say 99.9 per cent of the people of Makerfield want. They don’t want to be driving down potholed roads. They want to let the kids go out and play in the street without any risk of them becoming a victim of knife crime or getting hooked on drugs”.

I asked him what upholding law and order might mean in practice — does he have views on changing the sentencing regime? “I’d have to have a good think about, and a good sit down — I don’t want to just start talking”. 

On Reform’s new policy under which overtime won’t be taxed, Kenyon is much more forthcoming, calling it “fantastic” — ‘I used to do overtime, I used to do on-call. If you work 40 hours a week, the government’s gained enough tax. If I decide to go work a Saturday afternoon, eight hours, that [will be] all mine now”, and: 

… if you’ve got an extra hundred quid, you’re going to spend it, aren’t you? You’ll go buy some clothes, or you might buy some toys for your kids, you might go out for a meal, might go out for a few pints. Like Adam Smith said, the Invisible Hand of the free market economy. The more you spend the better. 

This focus on community informs other aspects of his politics, in less obviously free market-friendly ways. Kenyon says that some of the big concerns locally are plans to build on the greenbelt around the area, the conversion of existing houses to HMOs, often used to house migrants, and the urgent need for a new local hospital, which he is campaigning for. He, and Reform are also campaigning in the area to save pubs. 

Turning to his rivals, Kenyon rejects Andy Burnham’s “Manchesterism”. According to him, people in Makerfield consider themselves “Wiganers” and “Lancastrians” rather than Mancunians, and Burnham is not received as well locally “as what the media think”. Kenyon believes that Wigan has “felt absolutely no benefit from [Burnham] the Mayor…the only thing that’s changed is the buses have gone yellow”. 

We discuss the latest polling in the constituency, which has Labour on 43 per cent, Reform on 40 per cent, Restore on 7 per cent and the other parties barely registering. Kenyon says this is a “two-horse race”, in which “the only threat to Labour in this area is Reform UK”. On the risk that Restore takes enough votes for Burnham to win, Kenyon warns that “people need to know that if you’re going to vote for Restore, then that’s just going to help Labour … and it’s not worth taking that risk. For this election I’d just ask that Restore voters, or potential Restore voters, vote for me — because it’s just not worth the risk”.

“It’s a two horse race, only Reform can beat Labour. Let’s stop Labour”

What risk? Kenyon believes that if Burnham wins the by-election, and becomes Prime Minister, he “can see things getting a lot worse for the country”, with the risk that he will allow the Boriswave to settle, meaning “there’s going to be a million people” granted passports. If this happens, would Kenyon support retrospectively cancelling those citizenships? His polished response: “I think that’s a question for our potential Home Secretary”. Similarly when I ask him what job he would aspire to in a future Reform government, he tells me that he doesn’t “want to look too far ahead”, because “I’m focused on Makerfield, first and foremost, and getting elected in this by-election is my priority”. Despite Burnham ruling this out, Kenyon also believes that if he were PM, Burnham would “rejoin the EU, which we all voted against in this area — 65 per cent leave — and people in this area voted on leaving the EU because of immigration”. 

As for the battle with Restore, Kenyon hasn’t “delved too much into Restore’s policies”, but returns to his statement that “it’s a two horse race, only Reform can beat Labour. Let’s stop Labour”.

After I’d interviewed Kenyon, it was reported that in the 2010s, an account linked to him wrote that women can’t “ref, drive or give directions≈ and declared: “I’m sexist, sorry but I am”.

A Reform spokesman told me that “these comments, which are little more than locker room banter, were made more than a decade ago — well before Rob was in politics. We simply don’t care about establishment hit jobs. We fully back Rob and are confident he will be an excellent MP for Makerfield”. The coming weeks will determine whether Makerfield voters care more about Mr Kenyon’s eloquent words on local issues or how he sounded off online.