Reform UK’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election has been accused of making “degrading” comments about women in another series of resurfaced online posts.
An account linked to Robert Kenyon - who is running against Andy Burnham in the crucial vote - 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 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”. The comments come days after other offensive X posts were highlighted by campaign group Hope Not Hate.
A spokesperson for Reform UK did not dispute the latest resurfaced comments but instead dismissed them as “locker room banter”. In 2016, Donald Trump infamously defending himself after a leaked tape heard him boasting about groping women by describing it as “locker room talk”.
But the latest revelations were condemned by Labour, who said Mr Farage had questions to answer about the party’s choice of candidate.
“Nigel Farage needs to urgently explain why he’s happy for a man who proudly admits he’s sexist to represent the people of Makerfield,” Anna Turley MP, Chair of the Labour Party, said.
“Robert Kenyon’s comments on women are degrading and an insult to the women and girls who live and work in Makerfield.
“Nigel Farage needs to stop selecting people with such retrograde views from standing for public office for Reform. The only way to stop Reform’s toxic politics from taking hold in Makerfield is to vote for Labour’s Andy Burnham on Thursday 18 June.”
The comments are the latest in a string of re-surfaced social media posts connected to Mr Kenyon, which have also seen him accused of sharing transphobic slurs and Covid misinformation.
In one deleted post on X, @robkenyon1 shared 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 presenter, adding:“He’s only saying what we’re all thinking.”
Ms Vorderman condemned the tweets, telling The Mirror: “Fundamentally, Rob Kenyon is a misogynist.
”He's not just being a lad, he's being a disgusting online abuser who became a Reform councillor three weeks ago.”
Mr Kenyon, who was born in the constituency and now works as a self-employed plumber, previously ran in the 2024 election where he finished in second place in the constituency with 31.8 per cent of the vote.
The June 18 by-election is shaping up to be a dramatic contest between Reform UK and Mr Burnham, who would likely use a victory to challenge Sir Keir Starmer’s leadership.
“These comments, which are little more than locker room banter, were made more than a decade ago - well before Rob was in politics,” a Reform UK spokesperson said of the latest resurfaced posts.
“We simply don't care about establishment hit jobs. We fully back Rob and are confident he will be an excellent MP for Makerfield.”
