If plucky plumber Robert Kenyon does become Reform’s ninth MP following the Makerfield by-election on June 18, mathematics mean he’s all but guaranteed a job in the party’s self-styled “shadow cabinet”. But what role could he land?
Kenyon – who had kept his head down since his dubious social media history reared its inevitable head – finally broke cover to give an interview to Chris Mason, the BBC’s Farage fanboy who attracted opprobrium last year for penning a review of Reform’s annual conference in Birmingham that was so fawning it could have come from the party’s press office.
Even Mason, though, couldn’t ignore that 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. Fortunately for the Reform man, though, he showed the political skills which showed what a boost he’ll be to Farage’s top team!
Could he be shadow defence secretary? Unearthed X posts show that Kenyon had claimed that Russia was “within their rights” to invade Crimea in 2014, agreeing with a post in an online forum that the invasion of the peninsula, part of Ukraine, was “democracy in action”.
Fortunately, he told Mason that he had since changed his mind, with a full-throated and convincing argument. Asked whether he still believed that, he said: “Absolutely not, Chris. I’ve served in the Army Reserves since and I’m totally against the illegal annexation of Crimea… things have happened since, people have changed their opinions on things.”
Suggested Reading
What’s the real reason Zia Yusuf won’t go after Rupert Lowe?
Maybe he could be shadow foreign secretary? Posts online show that he had previously claimed he did not vote for Brexit, praised European freedom of movement on social media and said those who pushed for leaving the EU had “peddled nationalistic pish”. So did he vote for Brexit, asked Mason?
“Hundred per cent, hand on heart, Chris, I voted for Brexit,” he said. “To be honest, I don’t even know in what context… I don’t… I’m not sure what ‘nationalistic pish’ means, if I’m honest with you.” He then laughed awkwardly before adding: “I’ve no recollection of saying that.”
There’s a role as shadow health secretary going. Kenyon might be perfect for that, although it has emerged he expressed doubt over the seriousness of Covid and the efficacy of vaccines for the virus. Archived webpages show a series of posts connected to Covid, including one in July 2022 in response to a post about a new variant. “It’s not making people sicker, I’ve no booster and had covid last week asymptomatic,” he wrote.
And in February 2023, Kenyon quote-tweeted a Sky News post about Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, urging people to get Covid booster vaccines, saying Whitty “can fuck right off”.
But now he’s changed his mind on that too!
“Well, I want to make one thing perfectly clear: I’m not anti-vax or anti-jabs,” he told Mason. “I had my first lot of Covid jabs, but… it wasn’t a polite thing to say, but I weren’t involved in politics back then. I speak like the normal bloke does.
“If you go into a pub – we’re in a pub now – you know, you go into the next room, speak to normal people, I think you’ll hear a lot worse than what I’ve said on Twitter.”
Finally, might he be a good fit for shadow minister for women? Apart from once sharing a particularly obscene message from a man eager to “smell and lick” a part of Vorderman’s anatomy, adding, “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking”?
“‘I’ve not made sexual remarks about Carol Vorderman,” he insisted to Mason. “Somebody else did, but then I responded with a crass joke about that comment, so I… I personally did not make that comment. There might have been a few crass comments.
“You know, if I’m elected… as an elected public official, which I am now, I wouldn’t make any crass comments, because everything you do stays under a microscope, but… comments I made before I was involved in politics, you know… you’ll be judged in future by what you say.”
Leaving aside that Kenyon appears to believe he’s already been elected, what an addition he’s going to be to the Reform front bench! As Farage – who stood close by Kenyon staring throughout the interview, like a particularly intense bouncer – has said, he would be a “superb” MP as his online history highlights that he “isn’t a polished, professional politician and doesn’t speak like one”. Quite!
Most popular
The dangerous rise of Restore
Nigel Farage and the politics of murder
Why is having sex with an animal worse than eating one? Discuss…
A whole lot of Americans still support Donald Trump – why?
