Carol Vorderman demands apology from Reform candidate for ‘abuse online’

Pol Allingham, Press Association

Carol Vorderman has demanded an apology from a “cowardly” Reform UK candidate in the Makerfield by-election who supported an offensive post about her, according to reports.

Robert Kenyon, who is standing against Labour’s Andy Burnham in the June 18 contest, used a now-deleted X account to support an offensive post about the Welsh broadcaster.

Messages published by campaign group Hope Not Hate showed that Mr Kenyon responded on Christmas Eve 2021 to another person’s post including graphic sexual language about the presenter, who made her name as the maths expert on Channel 4’s Countdown.

Alongside a thumbs up and a laughing emoji, the plumber wrote: “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking.”

Vorderman told The Mirror on Monday evening: “I want an apology from Rob Kenyon, to me, and to all the other people he’s abused online.”

She added: “I’m 65, I grew up in North Wales in abject poverty, I spent half of my life living in the North, whether it was Leeds, or Manchester, or that strip of North Wales.”

Earlier that day, Reform UK MP Danny Kruger described Mr Kenyon’s social media posts as “inappropriate”, but sought to defend the “private” comments of “an ordinary man”.

Asked about the message, Mr Kruger told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “The great challenge for social media for private people is that they use it as if they are chatting to their friends in the park.

“Clearly an inappropriate thing to say publicly.

“I’m not going to judge people for their what are essentially regarded at the time and intended as private conversations.”

Vorderman went on to tell the Mirror that Mr Kruger “says Kenyon is just an ordinary man saying ordinary things.

“No, I’m sorry, Kenyon isn’t an ordinary man. He’s a cowardly man which is why he deleted one of his social media accounts.”

She added: “They are public comments on a public platform and if Danny Kruger thinks online abuse is OK then Reform are therefore stating online abuse against women is OK, then all women in Makerfield need to know that.”