Nigel Farage has said Reform UK is “unapologetic” about its candidate in the Makerfield by-election Robert Kenyon, who made offensive remarks on social media in the past.
Mr Kenyon, who is standing against Labour’s Andy Burnham in the June 18 contest, used a now-deleted X account to support an offensive post about Welsh broadcaster Carol Vorderman.
Messages published by campaign group Hope Not Hate showed that Mr Kenyon responded on Christmas Eve 2021 to another person’s post including graphic sexual language about the presenter who made her name as the maths expert on Channel 4’s Countdown.
Alongside a thumbs up and a laughing emoji, the plumber wrote: “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking.”
Vorderman has demanded an apology from Mr Kenyon, who she branded “cowardly”.
Reform leader Mr Farage was asked about the comments during a press conference held in the Makerfield constituency, and dismissed them as “a few laddish things”.
He told reporters: “These comments were posted a decade ago. They’ve been taken wildly out of context, but they’re the sort of comments that you won’t necessarily get if you’re an Oxford-educated career politician living in a nice postcode in London.”
Mr Farage added: “But I tell you what, they are the kind of comments you’ll hear in every pub in the country every evening, and we should be unapologetic that Rob is an ordinary bloke who’s carved quite a career for himself, had the guts to set up a business, served as an army reservist, is a patriot, likes his rugby, likes the odd pint, and said a few laddish things on social media 10 years ago.
“Do you know what I’d say to that? I’d say, so what?”
Mr Farage dismissed a question of whether he was worried about losing female voters due to Mr Kenyon’s past comments, suggesting that concerns about children’s safety are “bigger female issues than they are male issues”.
“Whatever attempted smears they’re going to make against my friend Rob over here, the truth of it is that it’s women, and particularly mothers and grandmothers, that are the most concerned about the safety of their kids and grandkids on the streets of this country.
“And so no, I don’t think their attempts to paint us into this corner are going to work at all.
“Law and order, safety on the streets, feeling their kids can go to concerts on Saturday nights and get home safely. I think these are bigger female issues than they are male issues. I really do.”
He also urged people not to vote for former Reform UK MP Rupert Lowe’s Restore Party, saying the Makerfield by-election is a “two-horse race”.
“It’s a two-horse race and if you vote for Restore, you risk perhaps the most left-wing prime minister of modern times, so that’s the simple message that I am going to put to Restore voters.”
Labour chairwoman Anna Turley said Mr Farage’s “full-throated backing” of Mr Kenyon “is proving he’s just as unfit for office” as the Reform candidate.
She said: “Reform are determined to drag politics into the gutter.
“Defending someone who has made vile comments about women and who has peddled dangerous false narratives about the Manchester Arena bombing exposes just what a toxic and divisive Party Farage’s Reform is.”
At the press conference, Mr Farage announced plans to increase the VAT threshold for small businesses from £90,000 a year to £150,000 a year.
The current threshold means that any small businesses who make more than £90,000 in total turnover have to register for VAT on goods they sell.
As a debate over whether the UK should rejoin the EU continues to swirl over the by-election, Mr Farage claimed the step “couldn’t happen all the while we were in the grip of the European Union, won’t happen with politicians that frankly want to take us back there”.
Downing Street had earlier rejected reports in the Financial Times that Sir Keir Starmer is planning to tell ministers they should quit if they wish to support Mr Burnham in any future Labour leadership contest.
The Financial Times reported that the Prime Minister has taken the pre-emptive action to see off any resignations which could follow if Mr Burnham is successful in winning the Makerfield by-election next week.
The move would appear to contradict the collective responsibility Cabinet ministers are expected to adhere to, which requires them to not publicly disagree on major policy issues.
But the Prime Minister’s political spokesman said no such conversations had taken place when asked by reporters.
The spokesman also insisted that Sir Keir would stand in any leadership contest, should one begin.
Sir Keir is also confident he is the best placed Labour figure to see off challenges from Reform UK and other parties come the next general election, the spokesman suggested.
Wes Streeting, the former health secretary, who has said he will stand in any contest to succeed the Prime Minister, has warned that Labour risks becoming the “handmaiden” to Reform if it continues under Sir Keir’s stewardship.
The Makerfield by-election takes place on Thursday June 18.
Mr Burnham is pitching himself not just as a local candidate looking to represent the constituency, but also as a senior Labour figure who can change the direction of the party.
