{"id":986356,"date":"2026-05-26T18:03:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:03:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/986356\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T18:03:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:03:19","slug":"reforms-makerfield-by-election-candidate-didnt-vote-for-brexit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/986356\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform’s Makerfield by-election candidate ‘didn’t vote for Brexit’"},"content":{"rendered":"

There\u2019s been plenty of controversy over Reform\u2019s candidate in the Makerfield by-election, Robert Kenyon, and his old social media posts. <\/p>\n

But with Reform seemingly non-plussed by the plumber\u2019s sexist and lewd remarks about women<\/a>, then maybe this will concern them a bit more: he apparently didn\u2019t vote for Brexit and doesn\u2019t like Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

In social posts unearthed by the Times<\/a>, an account linked to Kenyon wrote on a rugby league fan forum in 2019: \u201cSo anyone who thinks I love Trump, voted Brexit, read the\u00a0Daily Mail, live in the 1950s, [am] a Tory and 103 is wrong. I\u2019m none of the above.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a separate post, the person behind the account wrote that they \u201cwoke up the day after Brexit s****ing myself to what was voted for.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ NEXT: Zia Yusuf and Robert Jenrick in online spat over Reform\u2019s immigration policy<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

They added that the European Union\u2019s treatment of the UK since the Brexit referendum though had made them \u201cglad we voted out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The comments came from an account with the username \u201cpost,\u201d which reveals in other comments that their Twitter handle is @robkenyon1 and promotes Mr Kenyon\u2019s book,\u00a0The Blood Waltz.<\/p>\n

In other Brexit-related posts, the account said they would join the EU \u201ctomorrow\u201d if it was \u201cstripped right back to what it was set up for\u201d, and also stated: \u201cFree movement of people is great when they are natives of the EU countries and not people from outside Europe seeking a Greek passport that will allow them into any country in the EU.\u201d<\/p>\n

Responding to the report from the Times, a Reform UK spokesman claimed Kenyon did in fact vote leave in the Brexit referendum. <\/p>\n

They added: \u201cHe has never endorsed freedom of movement in the EU\u2019s current form, which would result in millions of non-EU foreign nationals being able to enter the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brexit has become a key issue in the Makerfield by-election. The constituency voted in favour of Brexit by more than two-thirds, but Andy Burnham, Labour\u2019s candidate in the by-election, has previously said he would like to see the UK rejoin the EU. <\/p>\n

Burnham has since rowed back on his comments from last year, saying he respects the referendum result and does not want to \u201cre-run\u201d its debates. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s been plenty of controversy over Reform\u2019s candidate in the Makerfield by-election, Robert Kenyon, and his old social…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":986357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5226],"tags":[802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,268657,386,274259,16,15],"class_list":["post-986356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brexit","tag-brexit","tag-britain","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-great-britain","tag-makerfield-by-election","tag-reform-uk","tag-robert-kenyon","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116642198951338905","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=986356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/986357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=986356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=986356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=986356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}