One simple fact shows Reform and the Greens are nothing alike

Early on Thursday 21 May the Green Party of England and Wales named Chris Kennedy as its candidate in the Makerfield by-election. Later that day, Kennedy quit the race citing family reasons. Another possible explanation, later reported by the Times, was that he had shared posts on Facebook describing the recent antisemitic attacks in Golders Green as a “false flag”. Oh dear.

On the one hand, this was embarrassing; on the other, though, the Greens moved quickly both to remove a potentially problematic candidate and to draw a line. Far more embarrassing, surely, is the fact that Reform UK has not replaced its candidate. Multiple newspapers and the campaign group Hope Not Hate have all been able to claim scoops simply be trawling Robert Kenyon’s social media history. This is not a good sign.

Many of the most nauseating remarks from the self-proclaimed “white van man” concern his views on gender: the third wave, you’ll be shocked to learn, has passed him by. Women, Kenyon has said, cannot “ref, drive or give directions”, while those presenting rugby on TV are “only there to tick a box”. Those who’ve terminated pregnancies, meanwhile, did so for “vanity purposes” and so they can “shag anyone they want”. If Kenyon has given any thought to their partners’ role in this process, those thoughts have not yet made the national press.

Arguably more offensive was his response to a sexually explicit comment about Carol Vorderman that someone posted back in 2021, and which I’m absolutely not going to repeat in the magazine of Orwell. In a comment – and indeed on an account – that’s since been deleted, Kenyon replied with the words, “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking.” (We were not.) “I’m sexist, sorry but I am,” he wrote elsewhere. At least we can’t get him on hypocrisy.

Is that it? No, it’s not even close: the Huffington Post headlined a piece “Nine of the most shocking unearthed comments from Reform’s Makerfield candidate”, and that is not a good sign either. Other comments included those both objectifying English women and finding them wanting when compared to their continental peers (the former, apparently, “just walk around with their fat bellies and odd shapes pushing a pram at 16 in their PJs”); some homophobic rhetoric so stuck in the Eighties it’s about ready to claim its pension; and some transphobia that may, upsettingly, be rather more in keeping with the spirit of the age. He’s said things that sound anti-vax, and things that seemed to support Russia’s right to occupy Crimea. He’s also, bafflingly, seemed to blame Hillary Clinton for the 2017 Manchester Arena Bombing.

Official lines of defence have included “nearly 20 years ago”, “little more than locker-room banter” and “Cllr Kenyon is perfectly entitled to his own personal opinions on abortion”. Here’s a headline from last Thursday’s Manchester Evening News: “Reform’s white van man Robert Kenyon has some things to say – sorry isn’t one of them”.

Perhaps the reason Reform remains so committed to this liability is that the upsides of the candidate, a plainspoken local councillor and plumber, seem to outweigh the many, many downsides. Perhaps replacing him just seemed too much hassle. Or perhaps it’s that it doesn’t want to give the other side the satisfaction. (Another line of defence: “We simply don’t care about establishment hit jobs.”)

That may turn out to be a mistake. Makerfield feels like an eminently winnable seat for Nigel Farage’s party: if it can win here, and stop Labour’s most popular possible leader returning to parliament in the process, it’s hard to see how the government escapes the resulting disarray. To put it bluntly, though, the misogynist arsehole vote may not be sufficient to get Kenyon over the line – not least when it’s being shared with the even nastier Restore party, for which support, according to one poll, may be as high as 7 per cent.

The whole affair may also serve as a useful reminder to Labour, all the same. The leadership may prefer to frame Reform and the Greens as equal and opposite forces combining simplism, populism and lack of seriousness; both parties clearly have vetting procedures that have let poor candidates with questionable views and social media histories through. When the problems were spotted, though, the Greens moved to replace their candidate, while Reform has only doubled down.

The two may be equal threats to the Labour Party. But in no way are they the same.

[Further reading: Labour’s war of words]