Reform’s Makerfield by-election candidate under scrutiny over his support for the far-right

Robert Kenyon, Reform’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election, has had his X account suspended, and was Facebook friends with a neo-fascist leader. 

Kenyon’s account, Makerfield_RFK, was suspended by X because it violated the rules of the platform.

Archived posts retrieved from Kenyon’s account reveal that he expressed support for far-right figures. 

During the Southport riots in July and August 2024, Kenyon shared posts from far-right influencer Carl Benjamin. 

Benjamin spoke at Tommy Robinson’s Unite the Kingdom rally last Saturday.

Kenyon also shared a post from 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. 

As reported by the Metro, the Reform parliamentary candidate also responded to a Home Office tweet which read: “If you engage in violent protests, you will face the full force of the law”, stating: “Is it a hate crime for Asian men walk round in Birmingham assaulting white people en masse [sic]?”. 

In another post responding to journalist and editor at Novara Media, Ash Sarkar, Kenyon claimed that Britain “didn’t colonise India”. 

Responding to a post by Richard Tice 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.”

Up until recently,the Makerfield-born plumber was also Facebook friends with Gary Raikes, a former organiser for the British National Party and the leader of neo-fascist group the New British Union.

The NBU brands itself as a revival of Oswald Mosley’s Union of Fascists. 

Two years ago, Searchlight, an online publication which investigates fascism, racism and antisemitism, revealed that Raikes was one of Kenyon’s Facebook friends.

At the time, Searchlight asked Farage about Kenyon’s friendship with Raikes, but the Reform leader did not provide a response. 

Kenyon has now removed the neo-fascist leader as a friend, after posting on his Facebook account on 14 May that he was “moth balling this account so have removed all my friends on there”. 

Online, people have been raising questions about why Kenyon’s X account was suspended. Kenyon has now also disabled his Facebook account, making his posts inaccessible.

Reform Party UK Exposed wrote: “Hi @reformparty_uk, can you tell us why Robert Kenyon, your #Makerfield candidate’s Twitter account was suspended? 

“@MakerfieldRFK is his handle if you didn’t catch that in your vetting.”

Journalist Michael Crick wrote on X: “It’s also interesting that Searchlight asked Farage & Tice almost TWO YEARS AGO why Robert Kenyon was a Facebook friend of fascist leader Gary Raikes.  

“This is Kenyon’s third time as a candidate.  Is Reform’s vetting of candidates non-existent, or don’t they care?”. 

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward