Angela Rayner blasts Reform UK candidate Rob Kenyon as Nigel Farage’s ‘sexist puppet’
Angela Rayner has warned Andy Burnham “must win” this week’s Makerfield by-election, accusing the Reform UK candidate of being “Nigel Farage’s sexist puppet”.
Labor and Reform are vying to win Thursday’s crucial race, when Mr Burnham could return to parliament and launch his bid to unseat Sir Keir Starmer from 10th place.
Reform candidate Robert Kenyon has faced major backlash in recent weeks after a series of now-deleted comments he made about women resurfaced online.
Two days before voters went to the polls, Mr Rayner lashed out at Mr Kenyon’s comments, which included the suggestion that women “couldn’t make references, drive or give directions”.
“I know this conference is an important thing that’s going to happen this week, but there’s also an election on Thursday,” the former deputy prime minister told the Unison national conference.
“It’s an election between Andy Burnham and Nigel Farage’s sexist puppet. It’s a fight we must win. But this is just the beginning, the conference, we must finish the job on workers’ rights.”
Mr Kenyon has faced backlash in recent weeks after a series of offensive comments emerged on social media.
Independent It found that an account linked to Mr Kenyon wrote that women “can’t make references, drive or give directions” and added: “I’m sexist, sorry but I am.”
Posts on an online rugby league fan forum in the 2010s objectified the bodies of European women, saying British women “don’t care” and are “walking around pushing strollers in their pajamas as 16-year-olds with their fat bellies and weird shapes”.
The user also said on an RLFans forum: “European women all have really good bodies and look good” and responded to a post with a link to images of women: “Can’t save me from any of the bazookas.”
In posts made on a now-deleted account
Another user responded to the post: “If you’re prepared to put this on a public forum, I’d suggest your computer drive probably needs to be checked.”
But @robkenyon1 replied: “He’s just saying what we’re all thinking.”
Mr Kenyon has repeatedly refused to apologize for the comments, which Reform UK described as a “locker room joke”.
Appearing in the Makerfield byelection special of the BBC’s Question Time earlier this month, Mr Kenyon denied being sexist.
“I will not accept that label, I mean a lot of things were said 15 years ago,” he said. “I was raised by a single parent, a widowed grandmother, and an older sister. So I was raised by women.
“I have nothing but respect for women, you know, so I think something that was said 15 years ago was a quote from an old rugby forum, completely taken out of context.
“And like I said, I made mistakes, I said things years ago that I wouldn’t say now, and at that point I just don’t believe it.”
Mr. Kenyon is only five percentage points behind Mr. Burnham in recent election polls. Independent.
According to the poll, the mayor of Greater Manchester has a narrow lead on 46 per cent, while Mr Kenyon is five points behind on 41 per cent.
But Mr. Burnham’s lead in the poll is within the margin of error of just under 5 percentage points and the margin of his end-of-campaign movement; Which means it’s too close to reach a decision.
