Reform plagued by bitter infighting among officials after defeat in Makerfield

Following Reform’s embarrassing defeat in the Makerfield by-election, which saw Labour’s Andy Burnham win the seat, bitter in-fighting has ensued in Nigel Farage’s party over the selection of candidates and concerns that it is failing to attract women voters.

Burnham secured 24,937 votes, while Reform came second on 15,696. Rupert Lowe’s Restore came third on 3,111, while the Tories achieved  997 votes.

What made Burnham’s victory even more resounding is that Reform won 51% of the vote in the local elections in Makerfield just over a month ago. Burnham has achieved a 23pt swing from Reform to Labour since the May local elections.

Reform’s candidate Robert Kenyon was embroiled in a number of scandals, including his past social media comments which expressed misogynistic and sexist views.

Kenyon previously claimed that women “can’t drive” and that they get abortions for “vanity purposes”.

Kenyon also claimed that women primarily rely on abortions so they can “shag anyone they want”.

His comments were condemned during the campaign and Bloomberg cites one Reform official as saying that the party ‘need to recruit better candidates’ and ‘still needs to do more to professionalise’.

Party officials have also expressed concerns over a gender gap, with Reform struggling to win over women.

It seems as though Farage’s party members are busy attacking each other after the defeat.