'It's just disgusting stuff!: Carol Vorderman demands apology from Reform candidate after misogynistic comments
The TV star previously branded Robert Kenyon a 'vile online abuser'
Carol Vorderman has told LBC she wants an apology from Reform UK’s Makerfield by-election candidate Rob Kenyon after a series of misogynistic comments posted on a now-deleted X account.
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Speaking to James O’Brien on Wednesday, the broadcaster said she was not “upset” by the remarks but “angered” by what she described as a wider pattern of abuse towards women online.
Ms Vorderman said: “I want an apology from Rob Kenyon, to me, and to all the other people he’s abused online.”
It comes after Kenyon, a local plumber who is Reform UK's pick to take on Andy Burnham in the now-vacant seat, was seen to agree with several misogynistic online posts from his now-deleted X account, it's been alleged.
Kenyon was reportedly in possession of two separate X accounts, one of which was suspended by the platform and the other deleted, with campaign group Hope Not Hate unearthing a slew of "misogynistic" posts and comments dating back several years.
Posting to Instagram, Carol Vorderman showed screenshots of one particular sexually explicit remark about conducting sex acts on the presenter, posted to X on her birthday.
Read more: The full list of Makerfield by-election candidates confirmed
This was posted from one of the two accounts allegedly belonging to Kenyon.
Other posts screenshotted from the account include offensive jokes about female rugby players - which led to the account being blocked by the Sky Sports Rugby League - as well as other posts likening Australians to Nazis.
In the interview, Vorderman said one post about her that Kenyon had endorsed was especially vile, but stressed it was only one example among “multiple comments” she said amounted to online abuse directed at her and others.
“It’s not just one comment, it’s a tirade of online abuse. And every woman listening who has had that, will know how it makes them feel,” she continued.
Vorderman said she was angry not only about the comments themselves, but about Reform’s decision to stand Kenyon in the by-election and defend him after the posts emerged.
She said: “I am angry that a political party can take this person on, one, without obviously vetting him properly, but also that they just defend it and they’re fine with that.”
Asked whether she expected an apology, Vorderman told LBC: “I have asked for an apology. Not for me. But for all of us. For his comments so far I think we’re on day three. Nothing.”
She added: “He’s still running away. Hiding away from cameras.”
Mr Kenyon has since said he is “not a polished politician” and admitted he is “rough around the edges”, but stopped short of apologising.
Asked by the Manchester Evening News whether he wanted to take the opportunity to apologise, he said: “I think I’ve addressed the issue.”
He told the paper: “I’m not a polished politician. 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.”
Pressed directly on an apology, he said: “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.”
A Reform UK spokesman told LBC: “Cllr Kenyon made these comments before entering politics. We are confident that he is an excellent candidate who will be a superb local MP for Makerfield.
“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.”
Reform also issued separate statements to LBC on other historic comments by Kenyon.
On remarks regarding Crimea, a spokesman said: “At no point did Rob explicitly support or endorse Russia’s actions in Crimea.
"These comments were made before he was in politics and during a time when the British Prime Minister was still having meetings with Vladimir Putin.
Rob is unequivocally opposed to Russia’s illegal and brutal invasion of Ukraine.
“We fully back Cllr Kenyon. He is an excellent, local candidate who we are confident will be a superb MP for Makerfield.”
On Brexit, Kenyon told LBC via Reform’s media team: “These comments were made immediately after the referendum vote, nearly a decade ago and long before I entered politics.
“Like millions of ordinary people, I was fed up with a political elite that had stopped listening, stopped caring and treated the public with contempt.
"I voted to leave the EU to send a message, but Brexit was a huge decision and people were entitled to ask serious question about what came next and how the campaign was conducted on both sides.
“In the years since, I have become convinced that we made the right decision, despite the same tired establishment trying to block, dilute and delay Brexit in order to pretend it had failed.”
It comes after the Telegraph unearthed comments by Kenyon on a rugby league forum, where the candidate denounced Brexit as an economically self-harming project promoted by politicians who “peddled the nationalistic pish”.