Reform UK is examining whether sexist comments by its candidate in the Makerfield byelection may have harmed the party's chances, after Nigel Farage admitted the result was 'disappointing'. The party had hoped for a tightly fought battle with Labour's Andy Burnham, but Burnham won 55% of the vote share, finishing more than 9,000 votes ahead of Reform's candidate, Robert Kenyon.
Canvassers from different parties reported that voters highlighted sexist and lewd social media posts by Kenyon, which emerged during the campaign, with women in particular saying they were put off by them. The issue rose to prominence when TV presenter Carol Vorderman demanded an apology from Kenyon after it emerged he had joined in a graphic discussion about her in since-deleted posts. One Reform activist said the party had advised Kenyon not to apologise for the comments, calling it a mistake in how he was advised.
Farage acknowledged the impact of the controversy, saying, 'I will admit that the Vorderman stuff did not help us.' However, the party also pointed to the scale of the task in taking on a well-known figure like Burnham, noting that Kenyon increased his vote share from 2024 by 2.7 percentage points. Reform was also buoyed by Rupert Lowe's far-right Restore UK taking just under 7% of the vote, less than some forecasts had predicted.
In a video message, Farage urged Restore voters to back Reform instead, saying it was the only viable contender on the right of UK politics. He said the result was 'a dramatic, emphatic win for Andy Burnham' and that Reform had been 'slightly hoist with our own petard' in taking on a Labour challenger whose implicit message was that a vote for him was a vote to remove Keir Starmer.
Despite Restore's modest showing, Farage is concerned about losing votes to a party whose hard-right rhetoric has seemingly nudged Reform into taking a more nativist approach. Reform's migration policy has become more hardline, targeting EU nationals with settled status, and Farage has argued that white people in the UK face the most racism in what he calls a 'two-tier state'.
Farage ended his message: 'A disappointing morning, but we keep going.'
