Reform UK’s Makerfield candidate – local plumber and councillor Robert Kenyon – was joined for a pint by party leader Nigel Farage in the constituency ahead of the crunch by-election
19:00, 20 May 2026Updated 22:17, 20 May 2026
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage MP with Robert Kenyon(Image: M.E.N.)
When Reform UK said they would throw everything – including the kitchen sink – at the Makerfield by-election, they weren’t joking.
Punters at Real Ale Revolution 1 Revolution in Winstanley were surprised when none other than Nigel Farage walked through the doors on Wednesday (May 20).
His party had only announced the day before that local plumber and councillor Robert Kenyon was its candidate for the crunch poll following Andy Burnham’s move for a Parliamentary seat.
The Reform leader was greeted with a round of applause as he arrived at the microbar. He headed straight to the bar and ordered a pint of Blonde Witch ale, brewed neighbouring Lancashire.
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Ann Mangmall, 73, former Barclays worker, seemed starstruck. “I think he’s honest and he’s for Britain,” she told the Manchester Evening News. “I think he’d make a good Prime Minister. And I think he’s closer to the people.”
She doesn’t share the same affection for Mr Burnham, citing his scrapped Clean Air Zone policy. Speaking about Mr Kenyon, she said her daughter knows him and sees him out and about regularly.
“It’s important to have a local candidate,” Ann added. Like many the Manchester Evening News has spoke to in the constituency, Ann said she grew up in a Labour-supporting family.
Punters at The Real Ale Revolution 1(Image: M.E.N.)
She voted the party until Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership before switching to the Conservatives in 2019. Now she’s backing Reform. Comments like hers offer a snapshot of the political mood in Makerfield, a former coal mining area where Labour traditionally dominated – until recently, it seems.
Reform hopes frustration with mainstream politics can help it pull off a major win against one of Labour’s biggest names. Mr Farage himself appeared cautious. Asked how he thought the contest would go, he said: “Dunno. Dunno, it’s very early.”
He described the mayor or Greater Manchester as ‘a large figure’ in Labour politics, but insisted Reform had chosen ‘a genuine local candidate’.
“He’s a really solid, normal bloke who understands what the problems are,” he said of Mr Kenyon. The Reform leader acknowledged Burnham is a favourite with the bookies, but promised the party would ‘fight a big campaign’.
“I did say before I knew we were picking a plumber, we’d throw the kitchen sink at it,” he joked. “It turns out to have been a very appropriate comment.”
Farage said voters’ main concern is the cost of living crisis. “Rob makes the point that he works harder now than he did five or 10 years ago but he can afford less,” he added.
He also claimed there was growing ‘resentment’ between ‘those who work and those who choose not to work’. “We’ve pitched ourselves as being on the side of working people,” he added.
Robert Kenyon (centre), Reform UK’s candidate for the Makerfield by-election at Real Ale Revolution 1(Image: M.E.N.)
Makerfield’s Reform candidate is attempting to present himself as exactly that. Mr Kenyon, 41, was born and brought up in the constituency.
He attended St Edmund Arrowsmith Catholic High School. Before becoming a self-employed plumber, he worked as a welder and fabricator, served as an army reservist and later worked as a specialist NHS technician in Lancashire.
Away from politics, Mr Kenyon is a rugby league fan, supporting Wigan Warriors. He’s also a specialist in Muay Thai martial art. He’s married, but doesn’t want to say how many children he has, presumably for security reasons.
Kenyon was elected as a Reform councillor in Bryn with Ashton-in-Makerfield North in May and previously finished second in Makerfield at the 2024 general election, losing out to Labour’s Josh Simons, who has now resigned.
Speaking to the Manchester Evening News, he said many people in the area had once voted Labour out of habit. “You get brought up to vote Labour because you think they’re going to do the best for you,” he said. “They took us for granted. There’s a saying you could put a red rosette on a donkey and it would win.”
Mr Kenyon said his campaign had focused heavily on doorstep conversations. “We’ve knocked on doors that haven’t been knocked on for 40 years,” he said. “People just want to be listened to.”
Asked what it felt like to be the man attempting to derail Mr Burnham’s path to Westminster, he paused for some time. “As a regular plumber it’s a big ask and a big responsibility,” he said.
Robert Kenyon(Image: M.E.N.)
“But the rewards would be unbelievable. It’s been mentioned that it’s like David versus Goliath, but I think it’s bigger than that.” He said he had spent time driving Mr Farage around places important to him, including his old school, workplace and the streets where his grandparents lived.
The contrast with Mr Burnham is central to Reform’s campaign. In a campaign video released this week, Mr Kenyon criticised what he described as a string of career politicians.
“Labour and probably the majority of the other parties have got career politicians,” he says in the video. “They might know Westminster, but they don’t know the area or the people. For Andy Burnham, Makerfield will be a stepping stone. But for me it’s the only place I’ve ever wanted to represent.”
The candidate has also faced questions about his past social media activity. His old account on X, Makerfield_RFK, was suspended because it violated the rules of the platform. Mr Kenyon insisted he doesn’t know why.
“I think it’s political,” he said. He was shown posts that had generated some controversy, but said he didn’t remember writing them. “It’s whether or not I made them comments,” he said. “Other people had access to those accounts.” He said he would have to look at the posts in more details before commenting further.
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage MP(Image: M.E.N.)
Such comments haven’t put off friends Paul Moorcroft, Wayne Croft, David Holmes and Michael Dumican, who are were firmly behind Mr Farage’s party.
Paul, a 61-year-old painter and decorator, described Mr Kenyon as a ‘top bloke’. Wayne, 55, said: “People have got to give Reform a chance. The country needs to go back to where it was.”
Not everyone in the bar was convinced.
Their friend, also named Paul (he declined to give his surname), voted Remain in the Brexit referendum and said leaving the European Union had damaged his small business, selling industrial valves to power stations. The EU was his biggest market.
He said: “[Reform] is a party full of ex-Tories. The reason we’re in this mess is because of the Tories. How can they get us out of the mess they created in the first place?”
His friends went on to describe their biggest concerns – illegal immigration and the cost of living. Wayne also blamed rises in National Insurance and the minimum wage for making it harder to employ apprentices.
Asked what they think about Mr Burnham, some of the comments were unrepeatable. Their biggest gripe seems to be that the Greater Manchester mayor ‘hasn’t mentioned immigration’, said Wayne. “He keeps talking about reindustrialisation but it’s all rubbish.”
They also cited Mr Burnham’s ‘waste’ of over £100m on the axed Clean Air Zone as another reason not to vote for him next month.
As the afternoon at the microbar drew to a close, Mr Farage slipped out through the back door while continuing to field questions from reporters, including one about the £5m cryptocurrency donation from crypto billionaire Christopher Harborne. The Reform leader declined to answer.
For the next month, this by-election will be one of the most closely watched political battles in the country.