Carol Vorderman has demanded an apology from Reform by-election candidate Robert Kenyon over online comments he made about her.
The broadcaster and said Kenyon was a “cowardly man” after it emerged he had made a series of offensive posts on social media in recent years.
Kenyon’s comments about Vorderman were made on X in 2021 and reported by campaign group Hope Not Hate.
Responding to a post which included graphic sexual language about the presenter, Kenyon wrote “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking,” alongside a thumbs up and laughing emoji.
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In a video posted on her social media last week, Vorderman labelled Robert Kenyon an “online abuser” and said she wouldn’t let him in her house if he worked in her local area.
This week, more offensive posts from Kenyon on social media have emerged. This included sexist posts saying women ‘can’t drive or give directions,’ comments objectifying women’ bodies and messages in which Kenyon says women get abortions for ‘vanity purposes.
Speaking to the Mirror on Monday, Vorderman said she wanted “an apology from Rob Kenyon, to me, and to all the other people he’s abused online”.
This came after Reform MP Danny Kruger said that whilst he was “not going to defend” Kenyon’s comment, he did not believe it was a matter that should see him removed as the party’s by-election candidate.
Kruger told BBC Radio 4 that he was “not going to judge people for what are essentially regarded at the time and intended as private conversations”.
Defending Kenyon, Kruger added that he was “not a politician at the time” of the comments.
“He was an ordinary man from an ordinary place, and what he’s done now is step forward, outraged at the state of our country and the state of his community,” the MP said.
Vorderman gave Kruger’s defence short-shrift though, saying that being an “ordinary man” was no excuse for the posts.
“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,” she told the Mirror. “And he 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.
“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.”
This was echoed by Labour MP Angela Rayner, who told the Mirror the story “says all you need to know about Reform that they are allowing this repulsive misogynistic abuse to stand.”