Reform UK’s Makerfield candidate appeared to doubt seriousness of Covid on X
Archived posts suggest Robert Kenyon questioned Covid’s severity and vaccine boosters. Reform UK defended him as a straight-talking candidate who had his own jabs.
Intelligence analysis by GPT-5.4 Mini
The Guardian says Reform UK’s Makerfield byelection candidate, Robert Kenyon, previously posted Covid-sceptic messages on X and elsewhere online. The party says the remarks were made before politics and do not reflect his current stance.
A newspaper found old online posts from a man who wants to be a local politician. Those posts made it sound like he did not think Covid was very serious and did not trust booster shots.
This matters because people want leaders who listen to doctors and give good advice. If a driver ignores the road signs, people worry about the ride. Voters may feel the same about someone asking for their vote.
His party says the posts were old and that he has had his vaccines. The argument is now about whether those old messages should count against him.
Analysis
What the posts showed
The Guardian says archived pages linked to Robert Kenyon, Reform UK’s candidate in the Makerfield byelection, include a string of Covid-related posts from 2022 and 2023. In one message, he said the virus was not making people sicker and described his own recent case as asymptomatic. In another, he told someone ill with Covid to wait longer, take vitamins, and stop having boosters.
The broader pattern
The article says Kenyon also attacked England’s chief medical officer, Chris Whitty, in a quote-tweet and suggested that warnings about a possible new variant were meant to frighten parents into vaccinating children. The Guardian frames this alongside earlier reporting that linked Kenyon to far-right figures and pro-Trump messaging.
Political reaction
Sharon Hodgson, a junior health minister, said that more than 200,000 people died from Covid across Britain and argued that anyone seeking office who minimised the pandemic or undermined confidence in vaccines was unfit. Reform UK responded that Kenyon had received all his Covid jabs and that the comments were made before he entered politics. The party said he was not a polished politician, but would be a direct voice for local voters.
The dispute is not about one deleted account alone. It is about whether candidates can leave behind old online views when they move into public life, and how much those views should matter to voters during a campaign.
Key points
- Archived X posts suggest Robert Kenyon questioned how serious Covid was and pushed back on booster vaccines.
- The Guardian says Kenyon also made remarks attacking England’s chief medical officer and raising suspicion about variant warnings.
- A Labour minister said the comments showed he was unfit for public office after the pandemic death toll.
- Reform UK defended Kenyon, saying the posts were old and that he had been vaccinated during the pandemic.
