There is an excellent argument for why Reform must not be allowed to win the by-election at Makerfield on 18th June and it’s not because I have an inherent passion to see Andy Burnham the next leader of the Labour party, or because I am a closet supporter of any of the other parties. I confess, if I were to be able to vote in that election, I would vote for Burnham, but only because I would hope it would keep Farage's Reform candidate, Robert Kenyon far away from the House of Commons.
I think it would be fair to say
the parliamentary candidates in this by-election are some of the most
lack-lustre we have seen for some years.
Burnham is a talented and experienced politician
and, in terms of debate has shown himself to be leaps and bounds better than
the others, but he wants voters to support a party that since being elected is
on a path that will leave our defences in crisis, our housing stock reduced
even more and illegal immigration largely unabated. The last being one of the
biggest concerns amongst UK voters.
As for the rest of the
candidates, well let’s look at them, and to make it simpler, I am going to
eliminate those smaller parties and independents who will most certainly lose
their deposits. As for the rest, we have:
Jake Austin (Liberal
Democrat) – is an experienced local
councillor from Wigan but with polls showing him running at only 1%, he is one
of those likely to lose his deposit. He will be hoping this will improve by
election day, but I remain doubtful.
Michael Winstanley
(Conservative) – Another local councillor, who
one would have expected to be polling at least double numbers, but with polls
showing him only reaching 3%, the Conservatives must be asking what are they
doing wrong. Sadly, voters keep telling them, but they are not listening.
Sarah Wakefield (Green) – A Manchester City Councillor who has shown
herself to be a competent candidate and may, in the future, prove to have a
career in national politics, but with a party leader eager to divest himself of
his Jewish background and a propensity to offend anyone remotely appalled by
antisemitism, she is unlikely to do well. However, current polls put her at 5%
so she may, at least be able to keep her deposit.
Rebecca Shepherd (Restore) – Though highly unlikely to win, with polls
averaging 7%, she may prove to be a major thorn in Reform’s side and enough to
split the vote and give the seat to Andy
Burnham. Her party leader,
Rupert Lowe was once a member of Reform but he was
thrown out when he made false allegations of violence against Reform’s party
chairman, Zia Yusuf. One of his most well-known gaffs was saying, “I won’t have
woke creeps telling is we’re racist.”. Against this, he has argued how Indians
and Pakistanis are taking British jobs – is he racist? I leave that to you, but
the evidence is stacked heavily against him.
Robert Kenyon (Reform) – A recently elected councillor on Wigan council
and a plumber by trade (If elected maybe he could pair up with Green MP and
fellow plumber, Hannah Spencer and start an in-house plumbing business in the
Commons). Kenyon has a warehouse full of political gaffs (more on this later),
but despite this is still managing to achieve 41% (5% behind Burnham) of the
vote. He stood in 2024 as a candidate in Makerfield and came second.
By any stretch of the
imagination this is a pretty shoddy selection of candidates and, quite
honestly, I think the only reason there has been interest in this by-elections
is because of Burnham’s stated intention to force a leadership contest within
the Labour party if he is elected.
So, let’s now look at the
vulgarity of Reform, its leader and its candidates.
Nigel Farage
Recently I've been taking a look
at some of Farage's speeches, press conferences and news reports and I've concluded
he is a man with a highly questionable background, especially regarding his
attitude towards Jews.
But first, let’s look at his financial dealings -
in 2024, Farage personally received £5m from Christopher Harborne (Harborne,
also known as Charit Sanskrit) is a British Thai billionaire technology
investor and the largest financial backer of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party. He
has provided them with over £22 million in donations, including a
record-breaking single donation of £9 million in 2025) and add to that tens of
thousands Farage received over the years for "travel expenses" and
let's not forget the £1.4m house, according to Harborne, this was bought
outright for him, though Farage and later Harborne both claimed he bought it
from fees for appearing on I'm a Celebrity).
All this could be forgotten,
(especially when considered against a number of other MPs who take advantage of
their parliamentary work to make money outside) if he did his job while in the
House but, using a more recent example (there are others), during April and May
this year alone, he missed 77 parliamentary votes without explaining his
absence to his electorate while taking a £98, 599 salary. I should also mention
that detailed analysis of legislative records indicate he has registered other
frequent absences for votes.
Then, of course there is his
history of antisemitic comments when he was younger. You may recall how an
investigation by the Guardian newspaper disclosed how over 30 former
contemporaries and teachers at Dulwich College in south London alleged that the
teenage Farage engaged in racist and antisemitic behaviour. He put this all
down to childhood antics and therefore irrelevant, though interestingly he
refused to apologise. Additionally, in his early political career, Farage faced
a backlash for his interviews with far-right US media, where he discussed
supposed globalist plots, the financier George Soros, and the Bilderberg group.
He denied they were antisemitic, but nonetheless, UK Jewish groups condemned these
as antisemitic "dog whistles".
Finally a scour through the
Campaign Against Antisemitism archives revealed how in 2017, Farage
attempted to end a controversy over remarks he made when he told LBC Radio
listeners how he believed American Jews exert disproportionate political power
and even appeared to agree with a claim they have financial control over
American politics.
As for his supposed pro-Israel
position this was killed off when a caller on another LBC programme named only
as Ahmed, told Farage he thought the pro-Israeli lobby in the United States was
no less dangerous than alleged Russian hacking, Farage appeared to agree, and
started talking about Jews: “Well the Israeli lobby, you know, that’s a
reasonable point Ahmed, because there are about six million Jewish people
living in America, so as a percentage it’s quite small, but in terms of
influence it’s quite big.” When Ahmed said Israel has both the Republicans and
Democrats “in their pockets”, Farage responded: “Well in terms of money and
influence, yep, they are a very powerful lobby”. Summarising the call, Mr
Farage once again made clear he believed a “Jewish lobby” is at work on behalf
of a foreign Government, and adding: “ … that there are other very powerful
foreign lobbies in the United States of America, and the Jewish lobby, with its
links with the Israeli Government is one of those strong voices.”
Racism, sexism and intolerance
amongst Reform party candidates and officials
Given the number of Reform
members with known links to Britain First, BNP and in a couple of cases
Patriotic Alternative it should come as no surprise how a significant number of
candidates and officials have been shown to be sexist, racist or generally intolerant.
Indeed, even a cursory look at past candidates reveals questionable
characters who, normally should never have seen sight of a ballot sheet eg
Jonathan Kay, Mick Greenbough, Jack Denny, Stevie Bates, Lucian Fernando, Marc
Burca, Augustine Obodo, David Prior, George Martin Parnell, or John Black - and
this list is only a cursory glimpse through the database. If we dig deeper, it
is no surprise Tice himself admitted some of Reform's own candidates are
Muppets and morons.
Other recent candidates and
officials who helped expose the true racist and sexist nature of the party have
also included the candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election, who was
suspended over racist and antisemitic comments; the candidate for Hill End, who
made a spate of shocking comments about Jewish people, black people, Muslims
and Indians; the candidate for Bury, who said the Charedi Jewish population has
created a “demonic social structure” and compared it to Al Qaeda and ISIS; and
the chair of Brighton and Hove, who had to stand down after antisemitic posts
on X were revealed
Now, let me be clear, though I
am always astonished it needs saying, I do not believe Reform UK are National
Socialists. Indeed, I am on record as saying elsewhere how I concur with Prof
Cas Muddle they are a Radical Right political party and NOT even far-right. But
even more, if we acknowledge populism is a (thin) ideology that considers
society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic
groups, the pure people and the corrupt elite, and which argues politics should
be an expression of the volante Générale (general will) of the people, then
within this we can label Reform Party Ltd a populist Radical Right party, and
in this regard, I find both Farage and his party dangerous.
Of course, all the Reformers out
there will now be screaming 'but we suspended most of them' or ' that's old
news', but my reply is simple and from something I learned while teaching -
once is an accident, twice a coincidence and three times a pattern - so what's
well over one hundred? The answer is simple - the party remains steeped in
Radical Right politics but influenced by far-right fellow travellers who remain
in the party.
Robert Kenyon
But probably the best example of
the true nature of Reform lies in their candidate in the Makerfield
by-election, Robert Kenyon, a disturbingly sexist individual who, despite daily
revelations of his deep-seated disdain for women’s equality, continues to be
endorsed by them,
Let’s look at some of his comments:
On an online rugby forum, he
said: “… women can’t “ref, drive or give directions,” and on the subject of
women presenting rugby games on TV said: “aren’t up to the job and only there
to tick a box”, adding: “I’m sexist, sorry but I am.”
He also objectified European
women’s bodies, saying English women “don’t care” and “just walk around with
their fat bellies and odd shapes pushing a pram at 16 in their PJ’s”.
Now, in case you aren’t clear
about his position yet, let me tell you about his 2019 comments on a rugby
league forum claiming women who have abortions get them for “vanity purposes”
and so they can “shag anyone they want”.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, he
went on to pontificate about abortion, arguing it was: “a cowardly act of
murdering a defenceless baby” and then went on to suggest women falsely claim
to have been raped to terminate a pregnancy.
The LGBTQ community have also
been recipients of his wrath, arguing gay people are “poofs” on a 2009 forum,
and later, in 2010, describing them as “mincing about” on TV and in one post on
“X” wrote: “You can’t call her ‘The Queen’ anymore because it offends the
poofs.”
The next year, he
wrote: “People who want to make a stand for homosexuals need not
combat the throwaway comments of a sportsman on twitter, but need to do
something about the way homosexuals are perceived in the mainstream media, for
instance … having Julian Clarey [sic], Graham Norton, 4 poofs and a piano and
Paul O’Grady mincing about on TV does a lot more damage to the reputation of
homosexuals and causes greater insult in my opinion.”
In, as late as 2020, he wrote:
“If LGBT just want acceptance, then stop making a big song and dance about it,
attention seeking and taking over other events because that’s turning people
against you”. He also called Labour the “party for tyranny’s”.
Back on the subject of his
sexism, Hope Not Hate revealed in 2021 Kenyon interacted with a social media
message sent to the UK TV Countdown co-host, Carol Vorderman , which read:
“Happy birthday Carol, my God I would love to smell and lick your arsehole.”
And when she publicly demanded an apology, he replied, “… only saying what
we’re all thinking,” along with a thumbs up and a laughing emoji.
More disturbingly, the campaign organisation,
Searchlight which specialises in exposing far-right activists, discovered
Kenyon was friends with Gary Raike, the neo-Nazi, Hitler-loving leader of the
New British Union, a successor to the old Mosley British Union of Fascists.
Political Comment
It seems to me to be
extraordinarily obvious Reform is extremely dangerous and contrary to all the
values that have made the UK a great nation. Their hatred of immigrants, legal
or otherwise, isn’t based on a desire to protect the culture and traditions of
our country, but on a fierce racism steeped in neo-fascist ideology and
supported by members who, in many cases, are themselves from a far-right or
neo-fascist background. Rather than wishing to rebuild Britain, they want to
destroy its democracy and build intolerance and division.
Their tools are lies and denial
using propaganda as its cudgel. Writing in the book, “1984”, Orwell once
said, “If all others accepted the lie which the Party [or its leader]
imposed – if all records told the same tale – then the lie passed into history
and became truth.” – never has this become more true than in the
writings and speeches of both Farage or Reform party officials.
Currently, they are riding on
the crest of a wave – a wave that will subjugate women and virtually every
minority group; a wave preaching tolerance and division – and like an infected
abscess it requires lancing and eradicated. It is my urgent prayer this starts
on voting day on June 18th but even if that happens, it will
mean a combined, Restore and Reform vote could easily still achieve over 50% of
the overall vote. And if that happens, Labour, Conservatives, Greens and the
Liberal Democrats must finally listen to the electorate and change direction to
adopt a New Politics. If they fail, democracy in this country could be doomed.
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