Reform’s Makerfield candidate Robert Kenyon squirms when challenged over social media remarks in humiliating interview

Reform’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election, Robert Kenyon, struggled to answer questions about offensive comments he previously made on social media in a disastrous interview.

Kenyon was challenged by the BBC’s political editor Chris Mason over comments suggesting Russia was justified in invading Crimea, as well as derogatory comments about women and posts appearing to suggest he didn’t vote for Brexit.

Mason said that the Reform candidate’s comments about Crimea could make people think he was sympathetic to Vladimir Putin.

Kenyon said he was against the illegal annexation of Crimea. He then tried to justify his comment saying “things had changed since” and that “people change their minds”. 

Grilled over his remarks that Brexiteer politicians has “peddled nationalistic pish”, Kenyon claimed he didn’t know what “nationalistic pish” meant and said he didn’t recall writing it.

The BBC journalist pointed out that Kenyon had written the comment on a rugby league forum. 

In another post, Kenyon quote-tweeted a Sky News post in which Professor Chris Whitty urged the public to get Covid-19 booster vaccines, and wrote that Whitty “can f*** right off”. 

“But I think you got the jabs yourself, so is it responsible to have been saying that kind of stuff whilst you were getting the jabs?,” Mason asked.

Kenyon said he wanted to “make clear” that he wasn’t anti-vaccines or jabs, and that he got his first set of covid jabs. He also said his comment about Whitty “wasn’t polite”, but that he wasn’t involved in politics when he said it, and that he speaks “like a normal bloke”.

He added: “You go into a pub […] and speak with local people and I think you’ll hear a lot worse than what I’ve said on Twitter.”

Mason then questioned Kenyon on his sexual remarks about Carol Vorderman. 

The Reform candidate said he hadn’t made sexual comments about Vorderman, claiming “Someone else did but I responded with the crass joke about that comment so personally I didn’t make the comment”. 

Mason said: “Carol Vorderman said what you had said was disgusting”, adding: “There’s a pattern around some of the remarks you’ve said in the past that have sounded like they were degrading women.”

Kenyon stumbled over his words, before saying “There might have been a few crass comments. You know as an elected public official which I am now, I wouldn’t make any crass comments because everything you do say is under a microscope.”

Reacting to the interview, one X user wrote: “This might be the worst performance from a political candidate I have ever seen in my life.”

Labour MP Luke Charters commented: “Worst political interview in history.”

Journalist Don McGowan wrote: “Robert Kenyon is trying to mould himself into the Farage ‘Man of the People Template™’ but it isn’t working.

“He was clearly preloaded with the questions and told what to say, but still managed to bungle it at every opportunity.

“Drinking pints in pubs and telling the BBC that most folk swear just isn’t a high enough benchmark for a role in Parliament representing his constituents.”

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward