Reform are embroiled in internal turmoil after privately conceding that they are likely to lose the Makerfield by-election.
Reports claim that the far right party expects Andy Burnham to beat its sexist plumber candidate Robert Kenyon by up to 8% – and that leader Nigel Farage is about to order an overhaul of its social media performance in response.
A Reform insider told the Independent that while the party has been briefing to other publications that Kenyon had closed the gap to just 2%, to other publications, its internal polling showed him losing by anything from 4.5% to 8%. They blamed “another disastrous candidate selection” to follow migrant-baiting Matt Goodwin’s dismal campaign in Gorton & Denton, with Kenyon’s vile social media posts losing him potential votes among Makerfield’s women.
It is another selection shambles for Reform, with some senior figures questioning how Kenyon was allowed to stand in the first place. They say that a series of posts he had made, including one endorsing a sexually explicit post about presenter Carol Vorderman, should have been spotted and flagged by party vetting.
Meanwhile, financial news website Bloomberg reported that Farage has “privately vowed to overhaul the team that manages his Facebook account because they were under-performing” Restore leader Rupert Lowe. Farage is said to have voiced his concerns in a speech to donors last month, conceding that his extremist rival is getting more engagement than Reform on social media.
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Yet within Reform too there are concerns about Farage’s own performance. His dismissal of Kenyon’s messages as “the sort of thing you’ll hear in every pub in the country every evening” has failed to win over dissenters, and privately there are questions about why the man considered to be Reform’s best asset has been so absent from the Makerfield campaign – with his reluctance to discuss his £5m payout from billionaire Christopher Harborne assumed to be the reason.
The party is said to be split by internal rifts – including between influential home affairs spokesman Zia Yusuf and Tory defectors Robert Jenrick and Lee Anderson. One Farage ally told the Independent: “Nigel has lost his way and allowed Reform to be watered down by Tories, he needs to get back to being true to himself.”
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