Reform UK’s candidate for the Makerfield by-election’s unearthed social media posts have stunned the general public over the last week.

The right-wing party announced last Tuesday that Robert Kenyon, a supposed “plucky plumber” and Wigan councillor, was going to be taking on Labour’s Andy Burnham in the race to win next month’s crunch contest.

Reform and Labour are locked in a two-horse race for the seat with Kenyon hoping to win over the support of the pro-Brexit constituency.

However, Burnham’s reputation as Greater Manchester mayor has given him an early lead according to polling – and he is hoping to oust Keir Starmer as prime minister if he wins the by-election.

With all eyes on the contest, Kenyon’s historic online presence has been dredged up – revealing some deeply problematic views.

Even so, Reform has stood by its candidate, even trying to market his outspoken comments as a positive.

Here’s what has been uncovered so far:

1. Attacks On Women

An account uncovered by The Independent and linked to Kenyon wrote women can’t “ref, drive or give directions” on an online rugby fan forum in the 2010s.

He said women presenting rugby games on TV “aren’t up to the job and only there to tick a box”, adding: “I’m sexist, sorry but I am.”

He also objectified European women’s bodies, saying English women “don’t care” and “just walk around with their fat bellies and odd shapes pushing a pram at 16 in their PJ’s”.

What did Reform say?

A spokesperson said: “These comments, which are little more than locker room banter, were made more than a decade ago – well before Rob was in politics.”

Reform’s spokesperson said: “We simply don’t care about establishment hit jobs. We fully back Rob and are confident he will be an excellent MP for Makerfield.”

2. Anti-Abortions Comments

The i paper unearthed 2019 comments sent on a rugby league forum which claimed women who have abortions get them for “vanity purposes” and so they can “shag anyone they want”.

Hope Not Hate campaigners also found that Kenyon also called abortion a “cowardly act of murdering a defenceless baby”in a series of now-deleted tweets from one account.

He also suggested women falsely claim to have been raped to terminate a pregnancy.

What did Reform say?

A spokesperson said: “Cllr Kenyon is perfectly entitled to his own personal opinions on abortion. In this country, this issue has always been a matter of conscience, regardless of which party a politician represents.”

3. Attacks On The LGBTQ+ Community

The Mirror reports Kenyon described gay people as “poofs” on a 2009 forum, and in 2010, described them as “mincing about” on TV.

In one post, he wrote: “You can’t call her ‘The Queen’ anymore because it offends the poofs.”

The next year, he wrote:  “People who want to make a stand for homosexuals need not combat the throwaway comments of a sportsman on twitter but need to do something about the way homosexuals are perceived in the mainstream media, for instance having Julian Clarey [sic], Graham Norton, 4 poofs and a piano and Paul O’Grady mincing about on TV does a lot more damage to the reputation of homosexuals and causes greater insult in my opinion.”

In 2020, he wrote: “If LGBT just want acceptance then stop making a big song and dance about it, attention seeking and taking over other events because that’s turning people against you”.

He also called Labour the “party for trannys”, according to the Observer.

What did Reform say?

A spokesperson said: “Many of these comments were made nearly 20 years ago – well before Rob was in politics. We simply don’t care about establishment hit jobs. We fully back Rob and are confident he will be an excellent MP for Makerfield.”

4. Anti-Covid Vaccines Comments

Kenyon cast doubt on the Covid vaccine on X while using an account which has since been deleted.

Archived webpages uncovered by the Guardian revealed Kenyon said: “It’s not making people sicker, I’ve no booster and had covid last week asymptomatic.”

When pressed on why his opinion was based on his own anecdotal experience, he said: “At the same time I had it, four other people on the course I was on caught it all the same as me, no symptoms.”

He claimed his 70-something mother-in-law with chronic ung disease also experienced it as a “cold”.

Kenyon advised someone else who was ill with Covid: “Wait longer, take vitamins, stop having boosters.”

He also replied to a Sky News post about England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty urging Brits to get booster jabs, saying Whitty can “fuck right off”.

He also claimed worries about a new variant in January 2022 were designed to “scare parents into getting their kids jabbed”. He wrote: “I smell a rat.”

What did Reform say?

“Robert had all his Covid jabs during the pandemic and his children are fully up to date on every vaccination,” a party representative said.

“These comments were made long before Rob was in politics. He isn’t a polished, professional politician and doesn’t speak like one. That’s precisely why he’ll be a straight-talking, effective voice for normal working people in Makerfield.”

5. Questions Over Brexit

The Times reported that Kenyon may not have voted for Brexit, even though that is a core policy of Reform UK.

In a social media post dating from March 28, 2019, he claimed he was not the typical right-winger.

“So anyone who thinks I love Trump, voted Brexit, read the Daily Mail, live in the 1950s, a Tory and 103 is wrong. I’m none of the above,” he said.

In another post, including a discussion called ‘Brexit Anyone?’, he wrote: “I woke up the day after Brexit shitting myself to what was voted for”, though he later said the EU’s treatment of Britain made him “glad we voted out”.

Kenyon also appeared to praise the principle of European free movement – one of Reform’s greatest qualms with the bloc – writing: ” “Free 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.”

What did Reform say?

A representative said Kenyon “voted Leave in 2016 and is a proud Brexiteer, unlike Andy Burnham who will drag the UK back into the EU by any means possible”.

6. Carol Vorderman Remarks

Hope Not Hate also revealed that in 2021 Kenyon interacted with a social media message sent to the Countdown host, which read: “Happy birthday Carol, my God I would love to smell and lick your arsehole.”

Kenyon replied, “he’s only saying what we’re all thinking,” along with a thumbs up and a laughing emoji.

Vorderman has called Kenyon a misogynist, and told the Daily Mirror that she wanted “apology from Rob Kenyon, to me, and to all the other people he’s abused online.”

What did Reform say?

Danny Kruger defended Kenyon’s comments on Vorderman on Monday, telling BBC Radio 4′s Today programme: “The great challenge for social media for private people is that they use it as if they are chatting to their friends in the pub.

“It was a clearly inappropriate thing to say. I’m not going to judge people for what was intended as private conversations. Clearly that is not the kind of comment you would want an elected politician to say.”

7. Interacting With The Far-Right

Campaign organisation Searchlight said Kenyon was friends with fascist campaigner Gary Raikes on a now deleted Facebook page.

What did Reform say?

Reform has not disputed this claim. Party leader Nigel Farage said: “When he [Kenyon] campaigned here at the general election, hundreds of people joined as friends, and one of them turned out to be unsavoury.

“I am utterly confident that in Rob, we’ve got somebody who’s done his bit for his country, done his bit for himself, does his bit for the community.”

8. Weighing In On Ukraine And Russia

Kenyon claimed Russia was “within its rights” to invade the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea back in 2014, according to The Telegraph.

In an online forum, he agreed with a post which called the annexation “democracy in action”, writing: “Russia are well within their rights to do what they have done as we did with the Falklands.”

What did Reform say?

“At no point did Rob explicitly support or endorse Russia’s actions in Crimea,” a spokesperson said. “He is fully opposed to Russia’s illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine. We fully back Cllr Kenyon. He is an excellent local candidate, who we are confident will be a superb MP for Makerfield.”

9. Manchester Arena Bombing

In posts from 2020 unearthed by The Times, Kenyon wrote: “Had [Hillary Clinton] stayed out of Libya, the MEN arena bombing wouldn’t have happened.”

The 2017 attack killed 22 concertgoers at an Ariana Grande concert. It was carried out by a 22-year-old Manchester-born son of Libyan immigrants, Salman Abedi, who died during the incident.

What did Reform say?

A party spokesperson said: “It is perfectly legitimate to point out that the instability in the Middle East has contributed to terrorist attacks in the West.

“The public are increasingly seeing through this hysterical media witch-hunt against a decent local working-class man. We stand firmly behind Cllr Rob Kenyon and are confident he will be an outstanding MP for Makerfield.”

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