{"id":987069,"date":"2026-05-27T02:04:23","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:04:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/987069\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T02:04:23","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T02:04:23","slug":"reforms-by-election-candidate-didnt-vote-for-brexit-unearthed-posts-suggest-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/987069\/","title":{"rendered":"Reform\u2019s by-election candidate didn\u2019t vote for Brexit, unearthed posts suggest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reform UK\u2019s Makerfield by-election candidate didn\u2019t vote for Brexit in the 2016 referendum, newly unearthed online posts suggest.<\/a><\/p>\n

Robert Kenyon, who is running as Nigel Farage\u2019s candidate<\/a> in the contest against Labour\u2019s Andy Burnham, has been under intense scrutiny in recent weeks over a series of resurfaced social media posts<\/a> that include sexist language and transphobic slurs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The issue of EU relations has become a key battleground in Makerfield, which voted 65 per cent in favour of Brexit<\/a> a decade ago when Mr Farage led the campaign for the UK to leave the bloc.<\/p>\n

But in now-deleted posts from 2019, Mr Kenyon, a plumber, appeared to deny that he voted Leave.<\/p>\n

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

The remarks were made by an account under the username \u201cpost\u201d, which reveals in other comments that their Twitter handle is @robkenyon1 and promotes Mr Kenyon\u2019s book, The Blood Waltz.<\/p>\n

In other posts, the account said they \u201cwoke up the day after Brexit s****ing myself to what was voted for\u201d, but the EU\u2019s subsequent treatment of the UK made them \u201cglad we voted out\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Robert<\/p>\n

Robert Kenyon appeared to suggest he didn\u2019t vote Leave in the 2016 Brexit vote (Reform UK)<\/p>\n

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

A spokesperson for Reform UK said Mr Kenyon \u201cvoted Leave in 2016 and is a proud Brexiteer, unlike Andy Burnham who will drag the UK back into the EU by any means possible\u201d.<\/p>\n

Mr Kenyon has also been accused of making \u201cdegrading\u201d comments about women in another series of resurfaced online posts.<\/p>\n

\"Farage<\/p>\n

Farage has backed Kenyon and dismissed other unearthed posts as \u2018locker room banter\u2019 (Getty)<\/p>\n

The same account also wrote in 2011 that women can\u2019t \u201cref, drive or give directions\u201d and declared: \u201cI\u2019m sexist, sorry but I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

Posts made on an online rugby fan forum in the 2010s objectified European women\u2019s bodies while saying English women \u201cdon\u2019t care\u201d and \u201cjust walk around with their fat bellies and odd shapes pushing a pram at 16 in their PJ\u2019s\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2019, responding to a discussion over women presenting matches on Sky, the posts stated: \u201cThe women on the panels aren\u2019t up to the job and only there to tick a box\u201d. It also said women\u2019s Super League players are \u201cno where near the standard\u201d to be commentating on games.<\/p>\n

In another post on the now-deleted robkenyon1 X account, he shared a sexually explicit post sent to Carol Vorderman on her birthday, in which another user declared he wanted to perform a sexual act on the presenter.<\/p>\n

Another user responded to the post, saying: \u201cIf you\u2019re prepared to put this on a public forum, I would suggest that your computer drive probably needs checking.\u201d<\/p>\n

But @robkenyon1 replied: \u201cHe\u2019s only saying what we\u2019re all thinking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Vorderman condemned the comments, telling The Mirror: \u201cFundamentally, Rob Kenyon is a misogynist.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added: “He’s not just being a lad, he’s being a disgusting online abuser who became a Reform councillor three weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Andy<\/p>\n

Andy Burnham, who is running in the Makerfield by-election for Labour, is positioning himself to replace the prime minister (PA)<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Reform UK did not dispute the resurfaced comments but instead dismissed them as \u201clocker-room banter\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese comments, which are little more than locker-room banter, were made more than a decade ago \u2013 well before Rob was in politics,\u201d a Reform UK spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe simply don\u2019t care about establishment hit jobs. We fully back Rob and are confident he will be an excellent MP for Makerfield.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Reform UK\u2019s Makerfield by-election candidate didn\u2019t vote for Brexit in the 2016 referendum, newly unearthed online posts suggest.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":987070,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5226],"tags":[8916,802,748,2000,299,5187,1699,4884,269710,274427,384,386,274428,274259,262508,16,15,59429],"class_list":["post-987069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brexit","tag-andy-burnham","tag-brexit","tag-britain","tag-eu","tag-europe","tag-european","tag-european-union","tag-great-britain","tag-makerfield","tag-mr-kenyon","tag-nigel-farage","tag-reform-uk","tag-rob-kenyon","tag-robert-kenyon","tag-the-2016-referendum","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-vote-leave"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116644091997966888","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987069","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=987069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/987069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/987070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=987069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=987069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=987069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}