Carol Vorderman has called for an apology from Reform’s by-election candidate as mounting pressure builds on Nigel Farage’s party to withdraw its backing. Robert Kenyon faces intense scrutiny over lewd remarks about the former Countdown presenter posted on a deleted X account. Carol told The Mirror: “I want an apology from Rob Kenyon, to me, and to all the other people he’s abused online.” Former Deputy PM Angela Rayner also told us: “It says all you need to know about Reform that they are allowing this repulsive misogynistic abuse to stand.”

Previously, Reform MP Danny Kruger branded the posts as “inappropriate” but insisted he should not be axed, arguing they were the “private comments” of “an ordinary man”. Carol fired back, telling the Mirror: “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. And he [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.” Mr Kenyon was chosen last week by Reform to challenge Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham in the Makerfield by-election on 18 June. However, historical remarks on his social media profiles have thus far dominated Reform’s campaign efforts, reports the Mirror.

Last week, campaigning organisation HopeNotHate uncovered that Mr Kenyon maintained two X accounts, one of which the platform has now suspended. The other has since been deleted, it reported. In 2021, Mr Kenyon replied to an X user who posted a degrading sexual comment about Carol. When another user condemned the remark, the now-Reform candidate weighed in: “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking.”

Mr Kruger faced questioning from Today programme presenter Emma Barnett on Monday, who read the remark aloud to him. She enquired: “Is that the type of better politician you think the British people deserve?” The former Tory responded: “What you’re seeing there – I didn’t know about that – is obviously a private comment.”

Told it was public, he went on: “Well, let me explain, the great challenge for social media for private people is that they use it as if they are chatting to their friends in the pub – clearly an inappropriate thing to say publicly. I’m not going to judge people for what are essentially regarded at the time and intended as private conversations – clearly that is not the sort of thing you want an elected politician to make. Quite rightly, clearly, he’s deleted that post and regrets it.”

Mr Kruger said: “Like I say, this was clearly something said in a different context. Not an appropriate thing to say publicly, and I am sure he recognises that too.” When pressed on whether the candidate should be removed as Reform’s representative in Makerfield, he responded: “No I don’t. It is clearly wrong for politicians to talk in that way.”

“He was not a politician at the time, he’s an ordinary man, from an ordinary place and what he’s done now is to step forward, outraged at the state of our country…”