Robert Kenyon, Reform's candidate for Makerfield. Would you let him in your house?

This is from Makerfield Heating's profile om "mybuilder.com":

"Makerfield Heating is a trusted heating and plumbing company based in Wigan, providing expert boiler installations, servicing, and repairs across the North West. With 22 years of experience and Gas Safe registered engineers, we pride ourselves on reliable workmanship, honest pricing, and exceptional customer service—keeping local homes warm and energy-efficient all year round.

I have 22 years experience as a Gas Engineer and I've just left British Gas after 5 years to set up my own company."

There's a picture of Rob Kenyon on the profile.

So he used to be a gas engineer, who worked for British Gas (why not mention it?) and has been self-employed since February. He mentions "we", so who are the other people?

I am probably being unreasonably suspicious, but there is something about this (apart from Farage being the one promoting him!) that doesn't feel right.

I agree.

Much is being made of the fact that he has a very clean and tidy plain white van, what looks like a brand new Stanley tool box and brand new tools. Now a plain van could be choice for security purposes but equally, it doesn’t advertise his business which appears to be new or newish and one might suppose he would want to. In 50 years as a householder I have never had a plumber of gas engineer who didn’t arrive in a logoed van.

His website for his business Makerfield Heating is (or should I say was) clearly a quickly knocked up and incomplete job using Wix. Most of the menu options were not completed and the front page was just generic template stuff.

I say was because it was there yesterday and is now gone - saying the domain name is not connected to a website. Hmm.

Google reviews for the business only go back six months. I don’t think dates can be faked.

My gut feeling is that he was working for someone else until six months ago. In the video with Farage I think he says his brother in law is in the same line of work. I see that there is another firm called TwinSun Heating operating from the same business address as Makerfield Heating whose last accounts say they employ two people.

So while he is registered as a gas engineer something seems not quite right about the business side of things. Reform are not letting him speak to the press so one can’t help but wonder what they are trying to conceal.

Thanks, Nanalot all is clear now. However, it does demonstrate the real problem that we have with such vile misogyny, doesn't it. Kenyon's comments were absolutely disgusting yet men (and some women) will defend him and worse still vote for him. It beggars belief!

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Oldnproud

I was wondering: is there any proof that Kenyon was actually working as a plumber before registering his company three months ago? Or since?

Ther's this video of him driving Farage around and talking about his life.

www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2079774469603713

Between this and various things he had written about himself online, he has had a variety of jobs including a business failure in 2010, Not sure what it was and why. He mentions the recession and having to go to Leeds for work.

He says he has worked in bars, in a bookies, for a scaffolding company, has said (not in the video) that he has been in the army and worked for the NHS during the pandemic.

He says he has gone "limited" as a company as he doesn't want to make quarterly returns which sole traders turning over more than £50,000 a year now have to do under Making Tax Digital

It makes me think he wouldn't enjoy the amount of paperwork a constituency MP has to wade through - although if he is using Farage as a yardstick then he probably doesn't realise there is any.

He sounds rather naive to me about what being an MP entails.

Thanks for the video. For some reason, I couldn't get sound, but was able read the subtitles.

I am probably being unreasonably suspicious, but there is something about this (apart from Farage being the one promoting him!) that doesn't feel right.

If I had to guess, I would say that Kenyan most likely has done some work at some point that could loosely fall under the umbrella of plumbing', but not to anything like the degree that they are aiming to make the electorate believe.

But exaggeration / embellishment and even outright lies seem to be common in politics, not just limited to Reform, so most likely there will be little if any fallout if this man's 'story' turns out to be little more than a work of fiction.

So disillusioned with all current politicians and having to pay income tax on my meagre state pension!

foxie48

Nanalot sorry I'm a bit confused about who was subjected to abuse. Was it Kenyon or Vorderman? I'm guessing it was Vorderman.

Sorry not to make myself clear. Carol Vorderman posted on Facebook about Rob Kenyon and his disgusting comments on his twitter account. In return, she received a barrage of abuse from posters on Facebook in reply to her post. I was shocked that there was so much support for Kenyon and very, very little for Vorderman .

Unspeakable! Is this really 'ordinary bloke' stuff??

A lor of polls predict around 250-300 seats for Reform in a GE.

The worry is that, as 6th best (5 elected, so the one chosen as candidate for a v imp by-election is probably the next best they've got) he is the cream of the crop. What are the ones who squeak in as 300th best going to be like if this is the 6th best they've got?

Yes foxie, it could be said that the Leader sets the tone, so, if the Leader is....

mum2three Why do you think Reform is attracting the "wrong sort of people"? I totally agree that the UK needs "decent law abiding people" in politics. However, the question is surely, is the leader of a party who is known to have made vile antisemitc remarks, has taken money from questionable people, failed to declare a £5 million personal gift from someone in Thailand who would gain hugely from loosening of the rules around the use of crytocurrency and who has unanswered questions about his links to European Fascists the person who is going to attract decent people who will stand up for their constituencies rather than line their own pockets? I doubt it!

The whole thing has been very rushed and I think anyone who was prepared to stand in the election was welcomed. The trouble is that there are a lot of decent people who want Reform to win but unfortunately, the party is attracting the wrong sort of people. I can understand why so many are put off going into politics, they are subject to personal attacks and abuse. The decent law-abiding people of this country need a party which will stand up for their interests. Sadly, at the moment, there simply isn't one.

Why do you need to know Oreo, why I need to know?

MawsRosie

I’ve also read he’s not a plumber but works in a vape shop!

That takes the biscuit

Yes actually, I do believe letting the facts about what he has said and this. out of info will make decent people turn away potentially just not vote

*Or turn to Restore/split the vote Is their candidate "clean".

PS - I don't support *hit like this in my own Party but the level of excrement here is beyond belief.

Oreo

Maremia

Is it against policy to let us know who is the recently banned GN?

Why do you feel you need to know?

Why do you feel Maremia has to answer to you?

As this is an online community, I can see no reason why we can't know who has left and why, unless it is for personal reasons. I can also see no reason why any poster should police anyone else's reasons for wanting to know something, but there we are.

In response to the OP, no, I would not want him in my house, although I have learnt never to mention politics or any sort of News to strangers, so as long as he kept his thoughts to himself I would probably be no wiser about his horrible views and it wouldn't be an issue.

Nanalot sorry I'm a bit confused about who was subjected to abuse. Was it Kenyon or Vorderman? I'm guessing it was Vorderman.

On Facebook, I saw a post commenting on Kenyon. The tirade of abusive comments about her that followed the post was unbelievable. I hope they were bots because I would not like to think there are that many vile people. There was very, very few supportive posts.

I heard the Danny Kruger interview and was totally shocked at what Kenyon had written on social media, it was completely indefensible. I don't think anyone could have defended him and to imagine him having a seat in the HoC is pretty appalling. I thought in the circumstances Kruger did the best he could. I'm aware that some men talk to each other like this but do we really want people like that representing us in parliament? Surely, if Reform is a popular party they can find someone better than Kenyon, a woman would be a good place to start it might help to curb the vile misogyny that seems ATM to be characteristic of the party.

Casdon I do think they would have him back but he could forget any sort of promotion 😄

Maremia

Is it against policy to let us know who is the recently banned GN?

Why do you feel you need to know?

M0nica

Danny Kruger was interviewed on R4 this morning, not sure who the interviewer was, I was only half listening while doing something else, but the interviewer was female and she absolutely skewered Kruger. She left him up the creek without a paddle.

The interviewer read out some of the emails this little piece of ordure, the ones fit to read, sent to Carol Vorderman. How any woman could bring herself to vote for this candidate after hearing those, I do not know and Danny Kruger did himself no favours. He was caught on the hop, hadn't been briefed and his defence of this candidate was disgusting.

There are strong rumours that Danny Kruger is not happy in Reform, and is considering defecting back to the Tories. I do wonder if they would want him back after this, even though in a way it would be a coup for them.

Is it against policy to let us know who is the recently banned GN?

Streeting was sone time ago, but there are quite a collection . If we are judging everyone's tweets ( and to be honest, I am not sure what I feel about that) then presumably he is a misogynist too. It isn't distraction. It is asking for consistent behaviour towards misogyny, otherwise I don't see how I can trust any if it. Womens rights are used left right and centre by many groups, often what they are trying to achieve is nothing to do with supporting women.

Galaxy I didn’t know that about Streeting 😲
If politicians could just restrain themselves from tweeting every thought that comes into their heads it would be a very good thing.

Our posts crossed NotSpaghetti.

Nevertheless, my post of 11.26 still stands.

Galaxy did explain the comment upthread