At the Bickershaw Village Community Club to the east of the Makerfield constituency, a group of women are gathered over tea and Mr Kipling’s French Fancies.
Flanked by embroidery machines, buttons and pieces of fabric, the MissPlaces women’s group are chatting about an election which has brought a cavalcade of canvassers, campaigners and TV crews to their once quiet corner of England. Regardless of their political views, they all agree on one thing. The Reform candidate, Robert Kenyon – who has refused to apologise for misogynist social media posts, and once admitted to being a sexist – is giving the men of Makerfield a bad name.
“My husband passed away a true gentleman,” says Theresa Robinson, 57, who lost her beloved Alan last year. “He would never have behaved like that. I’ve got three sons and they wouldn’t behave like that – and I wouldn’t want my daughter going out with someone like him either.”
Reform’s unofficial social media campaign has tried to paint Kenyon as “handsome Rob, the plucky plumber”, but locally women refer to him as ‘Sexist Rob’ after remarks he made about Carol Vorderman and other women.
As well as endorsing a highly offensive post about the lynchpin of the Mirror’s Pride of Britain Awards – “he’s only saying what we’re all thinking”, accompanied by a thumbs-up and laughing emojis – other social media posts from Kenyon include his view that “women can’t ref, can’t drive or give directions”, women pundits on Sky “are not up to the job”, and crude comments about women rugby league.
Kenyon has also made vile comments about women who have abortions – “don’t dole out ‘what if someone is raped by their brother’ – and said “English women just walk around with their fat bellies and odd shapes pushing a pram in their PJs”. In recent days, Kenyon has admitted the graphic, sexually explicit comment he replied to about Vorderman was a “disgusting comment”, and his post about her was “something I wouldn’t say now.”
But what seems to have annoyed local women is his refusal to apologise when given the opportunity on BBC Question Time – and Reform’s insistence that “Rob is an ordinary man, saying ordinary things”. Four miles across the constituency in Worsley Mesnes, Amy Madden, 28, says she is “disgusted” and “heartbroken” at Kenyon’s sexism and his refusal to apologise. And she was keen to emphasise he does not represent the working class men of Makerfield.
“What do I think of his views? Disgusting,” Amy, the founder of Wigan’s All Ears mental health charity, says. “I find it frightening and heartbreaking to be honest. We’ve fought so hard as women and it feels like he wants to take us backwards. I don’t want someone who thinks those kind of comments are okay to represent me – to represent vulnerable people, women, children, anyone.
“It’s insulting to say he’s just a regular bloke from Wigan. None of the men in my life are like that. It’s doing the men of Makerfield a massive disservice. I am voting for Andy Burnham, and so are most of the women I know. I’ve seen what he’s done and how he’s done it. I think Rob Kenyon’s attitude to women will have cost him a lot of votes.”
The latest Survation poll agrees, showing a decisive lead for Andy Burnham among Makerfield’s women, while among men he remains neck and neck with Kenyon. Support for Reform amongst women is running at 29 per cent, significantly below men’s support at 35 per cent. Support for Burnham was at 42 for women, versus 37 for men.
Back at the club at Bickershaw Village, which once served the miners who worked the deep coal seams of the Lancashire Coalfield via Bickershaw Colliery, and is now known for weddings, wakes and Northern Soul nights, Amanda Robinson says it’s not just his comments, but Reform’s policies which make this a dangerous moment for women in the constituency – and beyond.
“When I look at what they are hoping to do, repealing the maternity and reproductive rights we have fought for decades upon decades for – and saying they would take away PIP for mental health, that would affect most of the women here,” Amanda, the founder of MissPlaces, says.
“Rob Kenyon described his own views as ‘crass’ on Question Time but he wouldn’t apologise. How can a woman watch that and think I want to align myself with those views? They must be brainwashed. It scares me.”
In a tight-knit community of big families in which mums still rule, Kenyon’s claim that the only time his sexist comments come up on the doorstep “is when female voters have said ‘take no notice, they are just trying to smear you’,” would seem to be misguided.
Another woman who attends the group, Julie Mulhern, was surprised to receive one of Carol Vorderman’s letters to women voters through her letterbox last week, when the broadcaster intervened to ask women in the constituency for a chat “woman to woman”. Recounting his “nasty” posts, Vorderman said she wanted to make it clear that Kenyon is not a one-off but “Reform’s pattern”.
The former Countdown host concluded: “Right now, the women of Makerfield have real power.. you can decide if Rob Kenyon is the person you wish to represent you. Julie said Kenyon had himself knocked at her door only a few days before. She said she remains undecided about her vote, after feeling disappointed that Josh Simons had stood down as their Labour MP.
In Makerfield, it’s not just women who are horrified by Kenyon’s views. At Platt Bridge Community Zone, Dave Baxter is shaking his head. “What worries me,” says the 50-year-old community worker, and son of a miner, “is that Nigel Farage looked at Rob Kenyon and thought he’s the bloke for me. What made him think that? He’s looked at the constituency and what they will go for, and he’s come up with that.”
Dave is born and bred in Platt Bridge, a grafter known locally for his role in transforming a block of disused flats on Ribble Road into a thriving community hub. “Putting Rob Kenyon up here as the candidate shows me Reform have completely got the wrong end of the stick about Makerfield, if they think that’s what people around here will go towards,” he says.
“They thought a self-employed plumber with those views would work. But that’s a small minority of people. The rest of us, and especially people of my dad’s age, don’t think like that about women. What Reform don’t seem to understand is that this is a place with a lot of strong female leaders. They dropped the ball when they put him front of stage.”
This week, the legendary BBC Manchester broadcaster Mike Sweeney spoke for many Makerfield men as he hauled Kenyon over the coals on his ever-popular radio show. “People are going to look back over comments you’ve made a year, two years ago, and say, do I really want this guy as my MP, representing me, my mam, my daughters?” the former miner and docker told him. “Do I want him to be an MP?”
In less than a week’s time, these 12 square miles of England have the chance to make history. As Burnham himself says, “People here will write the script for change.”
Right now, as Carol Vorderman says, the women of Makerfield have real power. On Thursday, a pivotal moment in British political history may well be decided by Makerfield’s mums and matriarchs – the Queens of the North.
