KevAbbott

Before You Vote Kenyon Tomorrow, Here's What We Know Robert Kenyon is Reform UK's candidate in tomorrow's Makerfield by-election. Over the last six weeks the public record on him has built into one of the most thoroughly documented candidate profiles of this Parliament. Here is what is confirmed, sourced, and on the record. His original X account was suspended for rule violations. A second deleted account, uncovered separately by Hope Not Hate, showed him peddling Covid conspiracy theories, describing vaccine policy in Australia as comparable to Nazism, and making degrading comments about women. After the suspension, a new account, @RobKenyonReform, was created from a device located in the United States before moving to Ireland the following morning. The account carries Reform HQ's Millbank Tower imprint, set up by staffer Adam Rawlinson. Creating a new account after a suspension is itself a breach of X's terms of service, known as ban evasion. Farage stood next to Kenyon in Makerfield on 20 May, then promoted the ban evasion account the following evening, after every finding above was already public. On women, the record is direct from his own mouth. He has said he is sexist and that women cannot referee, drive or give directions. Asked about it in a recent interview, he claimed the comment was put to bed because his wife once gave him directions to Aberystwyth using a paper map. He said women get abortions for vanity purposes and use them as a secondary form of contraception. When a crude sexual comment was posted about Carol Vorderman, Kenyon responded with a thumbs up and laughing emoji, writing that the man was only saying what everyone was thinking. Asked about it directly, he said he did not make the original comment, only that he agreed with the sentiment behind it. On Brexit, he has called it something pushed by politicians peddling nationalistic pish. Asked about the comment in the same interview, he said he has no recollection of writing it and does not know what the phrase means, despite saying he voted Leave. On foreign policy, he previously said Russia was within their rights to take Crimea. Confronted with it, he reversed entirely, saying he is now totally against the illegal annexation and is a lot more informed than he was. His company, Makerfield Heating Ltd, was incorporated on 5 February this year with Kenyon as sole director. Every Google review for the business is five stars. One reviewer is his own family member, thanked personally by name in the owner's reply. Two further reviewers, who otherwise have no other reviews anywhere on Google, both appear separately in local Reform social media activity as supporters. A right of reply sent in May went unanswered. On the campaign trail this week, a photograph showed Wigan Reform councillors Gemma Painter and Lilian Rogers holding a sign reading "I would rather vote for Jimmy Savile than Labour" at a Kenyon canvassing event attended by Farage. The photograph was genuine, confirmed by a man who appears in it. Lee Anderson MP published an AI-generated image attempting to discredit the photograph as fake, then deleted it without explanation once the original surfaced on the councillor's own Facebook page. That matter has been reported to Greater Manchester Police. At PMQs today, Sarah Owen asked the Deputy Prime Minister whether Reform's record on Kenyon exposed what she called the rank hypocrisy of a party that talks tough on violence against women and girls while having, in her words, zero respect for women themselves. None of this is alleged. It is Kenyon's own words, his own account history, his own company, his own campaign event, said and shown in his own voice, on the record, days and hours before voters in Makerfield decide.