Carol Vorderman has sent an open letter to more than 6,000 female voters in Makerfield, distributed by hand in conjunction with Hope Not Hate, calling Reform candidate Robert Kenyon a “little coward,” directly refuting his building site defence with her own background as a civil engineering graduate, and warning women that Kenyon’s documented comments are not an isolated incident but evidence of a wider Reform pattern toward women’s rights.
The letter – exclusively revealed by the Manchester Evening News ahead of distribution – represents the most direct intervention yet in the byelection campaign. It quotes the specific post that triggered the controversy in full. Vorderman told the MEN she insisted on including the exact wording because “otherwise people might think, ‘oh he said she just looked a bit fat or something.'” The post, as we have reported in detail in our previous Vorderman piece, was written in response to a user who had written to Vorderman on her birthday: “My god, I would love to smell and lick your a*******.” Kenyon replied: “He’s only saying what we’re all thinking Chris.”
Reform’s response to the letter was four words and a deflection: “Carol Vorderman is a left-wing bad faith actor.”
The building site defence – demolished
The specific element of Vorderman’s intervention that carries most weight is her direct rebuttal of Kenyon’s own excuse. As we reported in our Kenyon interview piece, when the Manchester Evening News gave Kenyon the direct opportunity to apologise, he declined and instead said: “If you go into any building site in the area or any public barracks, I think you’d hear a hundred times worse said.”
Vorderman’s response is personal and specific. “My stepfather was a builder, so I spent years on building sites,” she told the MEN. “I studied civil engineering so I worked underground being the only woman with 2,000 men. They might have said ‘we don’t want you here, because women shouldn’t be here’ but nowhere was that sort of crudity said, none at all, so he’s lying.”
This is not a general rebuttal of the building site framing. It is a direct contradiction from someone who was there – on building sites, underground, as the only woman – who is saying the comparison Kenyon reached for is false. “It’s more excuses, more cowardly excuses,” she said. “Sorry is his hardest word.”
When asked if she would have accepted an apology, she was clear: “I would accept an apology that’s meant. Of course I would. But Reform has a pattern of this.”
What the letter says
The letter is written woman to woman, in Vorderman’s own voice, and covers several specific grounds. She lists the documented posts from Kenyon’s deleted accounts – the graphic comment, the anti-abortion views, the comparisons between English and European women, the rugby comments, the “women can’t drive” posts and the explicit self-identification as sexist – as we have reported across our deleted accounts investigation and RLFans forum piece.
But the letter’s most significant argument is not about Kenyon specifically. It is about Reform’s wider record on women. She cites three specific points:
The case of James McMurdock, the Reform MP elected in 2024 who was found after the election to have a conviction for assault of his girlfriend outside a nightclub. “Court records stated that she was on the ground and he was kicking her. Reform said ‘he did his time.'”
Reform’s vote against the Employment Rights Act, which strengthened maternity rights and sick pay.
Reform’s pledge to abolish the Equality Act on “Day One” if they came to power – the same Act that protects women from workplace harassment, underpins equal pay and guarantees maternity rights.
“I don’t want our girls to lose them now,” she writes, “and that is what Reform has said they’ll do.”
The northern credentials – and who she’s writing to
A specific element of the letter addresses the authenticity argument that Reform has been deploying for Kenyon. Vorderman directly positions herself as someone with genuine northern roots and working-class origins – not a London commentator passing judgment on a community she doesn’t know.
“I was brought up in poverty in North Wales,” she writes. “I was a free school meals kid who’s spent half her life in the North including working in Leigh and living in Leeds for many years and making Countdown there for 26 years.”
She then draws a direct contrast with Reform’s leadership: “As opposed to most of the private school Reform leaders who helicopter in (and who are the ones who would have the real power, not Kenyon) I am absolutely NOT a Londoner.”
The “not Kenyon” parenthesis is pointed. It speaks to the specific argument Reform has been making – that Kenyon is authentic and local while other voices are establishment. Vorderman is saying: I am also northern, also working class, also not from London. And I am telling you what I saw.
Reform’s response
Reform called Vorderman “a left-wing bad faith actor” and said that if she spent “half as much energy attacking Labour for letting men into women’s spaces and blocking a grooming gang inquiry” her words might carry weight with women in Makerfield.
The response pivots from the specific allegations – documented posts, an undisputed quote, a direct lie about building sites – to a culture war frame. It does not dispute the quote. It does not explain why Kenyon said “he’s only saying what we’re all thinking.” It does not address the McMurdock conviction. It does not address the Equality Act abolition pledge. It calls a 65-year-old woman who grew up in poverty in North Wales a “left-wing bad faith actor” for writing a letter to voters about their local candidate.
As we reported in our EHRC Islamophobia complaint piece, the same deflection pattern – dismiss the source, change the subject, don’t address the substance – is Reform’s consistent response to accountability. Vorderman’s letter has now reached 6,000 women in Makerfield. The byelection is 18 June.
The letter from Carol Vorderman in full
Please forgive me for asking for a moment of your time and thank you for reading this. I appreciate it.
I want to talk to you, woman to woman, about the Reform candidate standing in your by-election,
Rob Kenyon, and how he thinks about us. Because I think it matters.
Reform’s Rob Kenyon deleted his social media accounts to hide what he’d posted, but investigations have uncovered a pattern of nasty posts about women. Here are just SOME of them
*Agreed with someone who said they wanted to “smell and lick” Carol Vorderman’s “ar*****e”, saying it was “what we are all thinking”
*Terrible comments about women who have had an abortion
*Comparing English to European women…how English women “..don’t care…just walk around with their fat bellies and strange shapes….”
*Said in response to photos of European women rugby players, “Wouldn’t get me off any of those with a bazooka.”
*About female rugby players and the way they “handle their knockers”
*Suggesting women “can’t drive” or ‘referee’
*And if you’re in any doubt he’s openly stated ‘I’m sexist’.
When asked simply to say sorry, he’s refused.
Why does all this matter? Well I’m 65, I was brought up in poverty in North Wales, and we’ve all had to battle hard to get rights for our daughters and their daughters and I don’t want our girls to lose them now, and that is what Reform has said they’ll do.
Why am I writing to you? Well Rob Kenyon has dragged me into his mess, and like so many of us we’ve had to fight for women to have a decent education, live well and safely, with millions of really good blokes helping us along the way.
Also, I was a free school meals kid who’s spent half her life in the North including working in Leigh and living in Leeds for many years and making Countdown there for 26 years. As opposed to most of the private school Reform leaders who helicopter in (and who are the ones who would have the real power, not Kenyon) I am absolutely NOT a Londoner.
But I want to make you aware, if you’re not aware already, that this kind of approach towards women and our protections is Reform’s pattern.
– In 2024, Reform’s James McMurdock became an MP. After the election, it was found that he’d been convicted for ‘assault by beating’ of his girlfriend outside a nightclub. Court records stated that she was on the ground and he was kicking her. Reform said ‘he did his time.’
– Reform has already voted against the Employment Rights Act, which strengthened maternity rights and sick pay.
– Reform has pledged to abolish the Equality Act on “Day One” if they ever became a government. The same Act that protects women from workplace harassment, strives for equal pay, and underpins maternity rights.
– And Reform thinks the way Rob Kenyon has spoken about women is not a problem.
Except reports from organisations protecting girls show that it is.
Right now, the women of Makerfield have real power and it’s wonderful to be able to say that: you can decide if Rob Kenyon is the person you want to represent you.
Thank you so much for your time. And however you vote, I genuinely wish you and your family well.
