Reform UK’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election wrote about Asian men ‘assaulting white people en masse’ and ‘an invasion of foreign criminals’ on his now suspended X account, Metro can reveal
Robert F Kenyon was selected by Reform to take on Andy Burnham in the critical by-election in Makerfield, Greater Manchester, next month.
Social media commentators noticed within minutes that Kenyon’s X account, Makerfield_RFK, was suspended by X because it violated the rules of the platform.
Metro has uncovered a string of provocative posts on his X account – including one saying the King should house asylum seekers – using a tool that saves X posts before they are deleted.
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Reform has refused to investigate Kenyon and said politics needs more people like him.
The X profile adopts Kenyon’s initials, was for a while labelled ‘Robert F Kenyon for Makerfield’, with tweets sometimes signed off ‘R. Kenyon’.
He began posting increasingly inflammatory remarks after the Southport attack at the end of July 2024, which were followed by days of anti-immigration ‘far-right’ riots.
The Home Office tweeted in the middle of the unrest that those who ‘engage in violent protests… will face the full force of the law’.
In response, Kenyon said on August 6: ‘Is it a hate crime for Asian men walk round in Birmingham assaulting white people en masse [sic]?’
This tweet appears to reference counter-protests that took place in Birmingham in response to the riots.
He also replied to a tweet by Owen Jones calling the rioters a ‘massive danger’, Kenyon wrote on August 9: ‘Let’s me honest Owen, there was never a threat from the far right because they don’t really exist.’
Between these two posts, Kenyon also posted a long thread on X condemning violence from protestors and signed off ‘R. Kenyon, Makerfield Spokesperson, Reform UK’.
Counter-protests sparked accusation of two-tier policing from a number of figures on the British right.
Responding to an interview with a West Midlands Police superintendent about how they policed the counter-protests, Kenyon said: ‘…he has showed exactly there is a two tier policing system in the UK agains[t] the native population.’
On August 10, King Charles called for unity and understanding after the nationwide protests.
Responding to a tweet about that call, Kenyon said: ‘I think now the King can open up his palaces and grounds for the asylum seekers.’
The plumber, who stood for Reform in the 2024 general election in the same seat, also posted inflammatory remarks before the Southport attack.
Reacting to a tweet by Richard Tice about a soldier being stabbed outside a barracks, Kenyon said: ‘We are being gas lighted on an industrial scale, we are being put at risk due to the invasion of foreign criminals.’
A couple weeks later, the Reform candidate posted that ‘maybe extreme misogyny is forcing your wife to wear certain clothing?’ in response to a news article saying that the Home Office was going to start treating extreme misogyny as terrorism.
Kenyon also claimed ‘we didn’t colonise India’
In a tweet responding to journalist Ash Sarkar, Kenyon wrote: ‘We colonised America, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and Rhodesia. But we didn’t colonise India.’
The relevations about Kenyon’s tweets will raise further questions about Reform UK’s vetting procedures after a string of elected councillors were found to have said controversial things.
The party was forced to investigate one candidate who said Nigerians should be melted down to ‘fill in the pot holes’.
A Conservative source said: ‘Farage and Reform have serious questions to answer about the vetting of their candidate in Makerfield. Someone needs to tell Reform HQ that deleting someones social media accounts doesn’t count’.
However Reform have refused to investigate Kenyon.
A Reform spokesman said: ‘We will not investigate him. Robert Kenyon is a brilliant candidate and we are proud to have him represent the party. British politics needs more real people involved like Robert.’
Kenyon finished in second place in the 2024 election in Makerfield, 5,000 votes behind Labour.
However, Burnham faces a political fight to win the seat after Labour suffered catastrophic losses in the local elections.
This includes in Wigan council, which covers much of Makerfield, where Reform picked up 24 out of 25 seats contested on May 7.
Reform Makerfield have been contacted for comment.
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