𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

Robert Kenyon is used to tackling crises for the people of Makerfield. As a plumber, he arrives in homes across the constituency to fix leaks and blockages. Now he wants the chance to get to grips with an even greater range of problems as Reform UK’s newest Member of Parliament.

The June 18 by-election is like none in recent history. It was triggered when the sitting Labour MP quit to give Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham the opportunity to return to Parliament and replace Sir Keir Starmer as Prime Minister. The eyes of the world are on Makerfield. If Mr Burnham triumphs, the White House, NATO, the bond markets, the EU, Moscow and Beijing will prepare for a new battle for Number No 10.

But if Mr Kenyon, a 41-year-old dad of two, can stop Mr Burnham in his tracks, Labour will be humiliated and devastated at the loss of a heartland seat which has always been painted red. Victory here would cement expectations that Nigel Farage will be Prime Minister after the next general election. For the man Reform has dubbed the “plucky plumber”, this is unfinished business. He fought the seat in the 2024 contest and finished second, just 5,399 votes behind Labour in a landslide election year.

His latest campaign has been rocked by multiple revelations about past comments posted on social media, some of which have raised sharp questions about his attitude to women. As reported in the Express, he acknowledges he has made “crass” remarks which he “would regret now and wouldn’t say now”.

In standing against Mr Burnham, this former Army reservist who also worked as an NHS specialist technician faces one of the most experienced politicians in Britain – an ex-cabinet minister who twice ran for the Labour leadership and has built a powerful personal brand through the Manchester mayoralty. But, when we meet on a hot day at Reform’s Wigan HQ, Mr Kenyon does not look worried about taking on the Labour hi-tech campaigning machine.

“Wigan’s different gravy,” he explains. “They think they know Wigan; they don’t know it like I know it. I know Makerfield because we’ve actually spoken to people on the doorstep. I live it, I breathe it.”

Pointing to his years working as a plumber, he says: “I’ve been working in six people’s houses a day, at least… I know people round here.

“I don’t need a spreadsheet that says how someone voted 15 years ago. I know what’s in people’s hearts and in their minds.”

He has a ready attack line, contrasting his ambition to champion the constituency with Mr Burnham’s widely acknowledged aspirations to rescue the Labour party and move into Number 10: “My priority is Makerfield, not going onto another job.”

Constituents do not want to be dragged into Labour’s “civil war”, he argues: “They’re sick of it. They want to be listened to; they want us to act on their behalf.”

He does not hesitate when asked if voters in Makerfield feel they have shared in Manchester’s prosperity on Mr Burnham’s watch: “Absolutely not. We’ve been ignored.”

In fact, he argues: “They don’t see themselves as being from Greater Manchester. If you met anyone from Wigan on holiday, [not] one of them would say [they came from] Greater Manchester. They’d say Wigan or Lancashire.

“That’s our identity that goes back hundreds and hundreds of years.”

If Labour is ousted from Makerfield, he claims, this will be an example of “democracy in action” which “just shows that you can’t take people for granted”.

He describes how trust in Labour has collapsed as a result of unpopular policies such as changes to pensioners winter fuel payments and a refusal to deliver for WASPI women. Mr Kenyon’s own political journey reflects the withering of support for Labour in former industrial communities across the country.

“I was brought up to go and put your X in the Labour box because that’s what you did round here,” he says. “But then I got to a certain age where I thought, ‘Hang on a minute, we’ve been to Iraq and we’ve been to Afghanistan. We’ve sold all the gold off at record low prices, and the population’s grown by x million…’ That’s what put me off the Labour party because I didn’t think they were for the working man or working woman anymore. So then I started voting UKIP because I was a big fan of Nigel, still am.”

The lightning bolt hit him around 2010, when he heard the future Reform leader on the radio: “I listened to him for about half an hour [and] I was blown away. I thought, ‘Who is this man? You know, he talks a lot of sense.”

Today, he is pinning his hopes on the potential for Reform to deliver a “better and safer country”. As a reservist, he trained to provide engineering support to infantry, building bridges and removing obstacles.

He “absolutely loved” his time in the Army, and says ministers should seek the advice of the people responsible for running our armed forces: “Find out what they want and do your best to give it to them, whether it’s people, equipment, money, because at the end of the day, you’ve got to protect your country and have that deterrent.”

At the start of the year there were fewer than 74,000 people in the UK’s regular Army, but Mr Kenyon insists “the quality is there and the people of this country are the best fighting men and women in the world”.

His training – which has also included taking night classes in construction and mechanical engineering – has left him, he says, with a “mindset of wanting to fix things”. He has also been shaped by his time working as a medical gas specialist in the NHS.

“One minute you could be working next to an end of life patient trying to fix something that’s going to make the last few minutes, hours [a] bit easier, and then the next minute you could be working in neonatal next to a 26-week-old baby that would fit in the palm of your hand,” he remembers.

He admits this could be an “emotional roller coaster because you’d see people at various parts of the life with various injuries, and it makes you feel lucky, you know, that you’re here”.

Another defining influence on the aspiring MP is rugby league. This Wigan Warriors fan started turning out to play in matches at the age of seven, and has vivid memories of the frozen puddles on the pitches.

“You know, when you’re seven years of age in shorts and t-shirt and you’re playing against other people, it certainly toughens you up… I’d say my attitude was probably forged on the rugby pitch, because you’ve got a group of mates around you [who] are willing to go through hell.”

Friendships from his years of rugby-playing remain at the heart of his life. Makerfield’s heritage of rugby league, coal mines and mills, he says, “creates that sense of community and toughness”.

“If we don’t like something, we’ll say it, and that’s why people have been rejecting Labour recently in this area,” he continues. “No matter what they say [or] the promises they make, people in Wigan don’t suffer fools.”