Reform by-election candidate refuses to apologise to Carol Vorderman over lewd remarks
Earlier this week, former Countdown star Carol Vorderman told The Mirror: ‘I want an apology from Rob Kenyon, to me, and to all the other people he’s abused online’
Carol Vorderman demanded an apology from Robert Kenyon earlier this week(Image: Dave Benett, Dave Benett/Getty Images for WFTV Awards)
Reform’s under-fire by-election candidate has refused to apologise to Carol Vorderman after lewd remarks about the ex-Countdown star.
Robert Kenyon, who is challenging Labour ’s Andy Burnham in the Makerfield contest, instead said “no offence was made”. It comes after Nigel Farage faced pressure to pull his party’s support from Mr Kenyon over comments posted on a deleted X account.
Campaigning group HopeNotHate, who discovered the account, said Mr Kenyon responded to an X user who wrote a degrading sexual message about Carol in 2021. After another user criticised the remark, the now-Reform candidate pitched in: “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking.” Earlier this week, Carol hit back, telling The Mirror : “I want an apology from Rob Kenyon, to me, and to all the other people he’s abused online.”
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, Mr Kenyon said: “I am rough around the edges. I have made mistakes in my life. I’m not perfect. Nobody is. Not a single person in the world is perfect. I think everybody does say things that eventually they regret. It was a crude attempt at a joke to probably about 50 followers. No offence was meant, and it’s not something I’d do now.”
Asked directly if he would like to take the opportunity to apologise, Mr Kenyon says: “I think I’ve addressed the issue. I think that no offence was meant and it wasn’t a direct comment to her. If you go into any building site in the area or any public barracks, I think you’d hear a hundred times worse said. It was just, like I said, a crass attempt at a joke and it’s not something I’d make now.”
Ex-Labour Cabinet minister Louise Haigh, the political lead of Andy Burnham’s by-election campaign, told The Mirror earlier this week: “Reform care so little about the people of Makerfield that they clearly didn’t do the most basic vetting on him or his social media history.”
Referring to the posts about Carol, she said: “These disrespectful and sexist posts clearly show he is not fit to be an MP and if Reform had any respect for the people of Makerfield they would remove him as their candidate immediately.”
In response to HopeNotHate’s investigation, a Reform UK spokesman said last week: “We fully back Cllr Kenyon. He is an excellent, local candidate who we are confident will be a superb MP for Makerfield. These comments were made before he was in politics. Rob 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.”
