Meet Reform's Manchester by-election candidate... who thinks non-Reform voters should house criminals

When Reform’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election, self-styled “plucky plumber” Robert Kenyon, turned out to have a dubious social media history, even Nigel Farage had to later concede its world-beating vetting process may have gone a bit astray.

Among other things, Kenyon had admitted “I’m a sexist”, claimed women couldn’t drive, said they had abortions “for vanity purposes”, complained about local ladies’ “fat bellies” and endorsed graphic sexual remarks about former Countdown numbers whizz Carol Vorderman.

Speaking after Kenyon was well beaten by Labour’s Andy Burnham, Farage conceded it had been unhelpful. “Look, you know, we couldn’t find his social media posts, he’s a plumber, a rugby player, ex-Army, one of the lads, likes a beer, and it was male banter, it wasn’t pretty, it wasn’t good, it didn’t help,” he told Today’s Nick Robinson. “I will admit that it didn’t help.”

Still, lesson learned – so Reform’s candidate for the Greater Manchester mayoralty, sparked by Burnham’s victory, must be clean as a whistle, right? Er…

The good news for Reform is that their candidate isn’t a sexist, Sian Astley being an actual woman. The bad news is everything else.

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Rats in a Sack

Astley is leader of the Reform group on Manchester City Council, as well as being a landlady with 17 properties and a semi-regular on the likes of TV shows DIY SOS and Getting the Builders In. She is also a keen user of social media, where she promotes her hardline immigration policies.

Just last month, she used her Facebook page to declare that anybody who did not vote Reform should be forced to house “criminals, rapists and economic chancers”. Reacting to a call from the party’s ludicrously-titled ‘shadow home secretary’ Zia Yusuf for migrant detention centres to be built in Green Party-controlled constituencies and council areas, Astley wrote: “How very democratic a policy. You get what you vote for.

“Personally I’d just ensure the Green voters, uniparty MPs (present or past) and Cllrs house the illegal criminals, rapists and economic chancers, so it’s nice of Reform UK to offer to build accommodation instead.”

She later added: “10,000 wokerati Instagrammers having a meltdown at my suggestion to house criminals with the people who want them imported wholesale into the UK. Not sure I understand their problem with it.”

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Rats in a Sack

In September 2024, Astley shared an image of the fascist party Britain First on her Instagram page, showing members hanging a banner over a motorway bridge saying: “PENSIONERS BEFORE MIGRANTS”. She wrote: “Everything about the world is making me mad right now.” And in February, she was photographed campaigning with Adam Mitula, later suspended over racist and antisemitic comments.

Still, all par for the course for Reform, who are unlikely to be too bothered. What might irk them more are comments which could be interpreted as critical of her party colleagues.

After the recent Belfast stabbing, she appeared to blame former Tory politicians for the incident. In response to a comment that called for ex-Conservatives Robert Jenrick and Suella Braverman to be kicked out of Reform, Astley wrote: “That’s hard to argue with Andy, what can I say, the Tories were appalling.”

And responding to Labour’s budget on GB News in October 2024, she said: “We should be taxing people that are taking money offshore, but we’re not” – probably not music to the ears of deputy leader Richard Tice, who has faced political and media scrutiny over millions in dividends channelled to a Jersey-registered trust from his property company, Quidnet REIT Limited.

Another triumph for Reform and its stringent vetting procedures – vetting procedures now overseen by Paul Nuttall, the former UKIP leader whose personal website and LinkedIn account made a number of false claims, including that he had a PhD in history, was once a professional footballer and lost “close friends” in the Hillsborough disaster.