Reform’s Makerfield by-election candidate faces backlash over ‘degrading’ comments about women
Robert Kenyon declared "I’m sexist, sorry but I am."
Reform UK’s Makerfield by-election candidate has made ‘degrading’ comments about women in a series of resurfaced posts.
As reported by the Independent, the plumber and Reform candidate Robert Kenyon previously claimed that women “can’t drive” and that they get abortions for “vanity purposes”.
Kenyon, who is standing against Andy Burnham in the crucial by-election, also claimed that women primarily rely on abortions so they can “shag anyone they want”.
An account linked to Kenyon wrote that women can’t “ref, drive or give directions” and declared: “I’m sexist, sorry but I am.”
In posts made in an online rugby fan forum in the 2010s, Kenyon said European women had “really good figures” and “are good-looking”, while 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”.
Responding to some images of women, he said: “Wouldn’t get me off any of those with a bazooka.”
In 2019, responding to a discussion over women presenting matches on Sky, a post from the account read: “The women on the panel’s aren’t up to the job and only there to tick a box”
He also said women’s super league players are “no where near the standard” to be commentating on games.
A spokesperson for Reform dismissed Kenyon’s latest resurfaced posts as “locker room banter”.
Searchlight, an online publication which investigates fascism, racism and antisemitism, previously revealed that Kenyon was Facebook friends with Gary Raikes, the leader of neo-fascist group the New British Union before he deleted his account.
The outlet also found he had been Facebook friends with Alex Eversfield, a neo-nazi and BNP campaigner Robert Baggs.
During the Southport riots in July and August 2024, Kenyon shared posts from far-right influencer Carl Benjamin.
The Reform candidate also shared a post made by Wayne O’Rourke, who was jailed for three years for sharing misinformation and stirring up racial hatred online in the wake of the Southport stabbings.
In another post responding to Richard Tice comments about a soldier being stabbed outside an army barracks in Kent in July 2024, Kenyon said: “We are being gas lighted on an industrial scale, we are being put at risk due to the invasion of foreign criminals.”
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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