Reform UK inflates candidate’s military image

Reform is pretending its Makerfield candidate was Action Man

Reform UK’s candidate in the Makerfield by-election is one Robert Kenyon. So far, Kenyon has attracted a great deal of criticism for the things he’s said in the past and the things he’s saying right now. Kenyon isn’t the only one talking nonsense, however, with his party joining in too:

He was a Lance Corporal in the Army Reserves. Stop trying to make it out as anything more than it is.

He’s also a sexist and a perv. pic.twitter.com/O2Urc8Q0J2

— Reform Party UK Exposed 🇬🇧 (@reformexposed) May 26, 2026

Reform gets territorial

As Reform Exposed notes above, Kenyon was a member of the Army Reserves — what we once called the Territorial Army. This is how the actual Army describe the reserve force on their website:

The Army Reserve is the largest of the UK’s Reserve Forces. It is a vital component of the Army, providing essential mass, unique capabilities, and a diversity of skills critical to meeting the Army’s commitments.

Army Reservists volunteer to serve alongside regular soldiers with an annual training obligation of either 19 or 27 days.

So the Army Reserves is like the Scouts but for adults. So the Man’s Brigade, essentially.

At the same time, it’s not all fun and games. We did deploy reservists in Iraq and Afghanistan. As the BBC reported, this gave them the opportunity to:

fight — and die — alongside comrades from the regular Army

Not much of an opportunity if you ask us; especially when we’re talking about one clearly illegal war and another which we ultimately lost.

All things considered, then, an Army Reserve could find themselves in a position in which they’re honourably ‘serving’ their country. For that to happen, of course, the UK would have to involve itself in a war in which we weren’t:

The aggressors.
Acting at the behest of US oil conglomerates.

As most of us know, the wars of the 21st century have not ‘served’ Britain whatsoever. And even if you think our recent military history was anything other than a series of murderous mistakes, there’s no evidence Kenyon served anyway:

Hi Lee, how many tours of duty has he done? https://t.co/LxCTaQoJjT

— Dr Iain Darcy 🍉 🇮🇪 💚 (@doctoriaindarcy) May 26, 2026

Fine, where has Kenyon served

— Dr Iain Darcy 🍉 🇮🇪 💚 (@doctoriaindarcy) May 27, 2026

In his own words

In the Reform video at the top, Kenyon says:

I joined the Army Reserves in 2020 and I absolutely loved my time in the Army Reserves.

This seemingly confirms that he didn’t get deployed anywhere — that, or he just loves getting shot at. Kenyon continued:

I was in the Royal Engineers, I was a combat close support engineer. My grandad was in the Navy, he got sunk twice during the war

My grandad was also in the Royal Navy during World War II. I’m not sure how many times he was sunk, and even if I did, I probably wouldn’t lead with that information out of respect.

Kenyon also said:

Imagine going away for four years for your country, that would have been horrendous conditions and imagine going in the Navy in the Second World War.

Much like Kenyon, we can also only imagine, because we’ve never actually been to war.

A final thing to note is that Brits have to fantasise about WWII because it was the last time we were clearly anything like ‘the good guys.’

If you really want to ‘serve’ your country, do it by ensuring young lads don’t have to die for the benefit of ExxonMobil.

Clean hands

To be entirely fair, the fact that Kenyon didn’t serve in Iraq shouldn’t be a criticism. The issue is that Reform is pretending he’s something he isn’t because the party thinks it will appeal to voters.

Should you be the sort of voter in question, by the way, remember that Kenyon is also the guy who said this:

But the guy who boasted he wanted to smell and lick Carol Vorderman's a******e passed with flying colours. https://t.co/JGhTe28x7S

— (((Dan Hodges))) (@DPJHodges) May 26, 2026

Featured image via Reform UK

Tags: Army Reform

Comments 3

LR says:

1 month ago

We know you hate the armed forces, and you consider all war to be illegal, under both international and domestic law (shooting at the enemy violates their human rights).
So we can view with contempt your attack on him for serviing in the Territorial Army, and especially your complaint that he didn’t actually fight in any wars (surely you should be happy about that, if all war is illegal!).
His ‘laddish’ comments are certainly an embarrassment, but at least he hasn’t covered up the rape of thousands of girls, like many serving MPs and ministers.

- B Wells says:
  
  4 weeks ago
  
  I’m an army veteran, a regular army veteran….. I do remember when on exercise with the US and other NATO members in my secondary role as field medic we had Army Reserve medics with us in Germany in mobile field hospitals, mostly doctors and of course we had a lot of respect for them but it was a very different story from combatants in my regiment who said working with three week a year Territorials, as the Reserves were known as then was like working with raw recruits just out of the army cadets.
  
  Sorry but unless they actually go to war they are cosplaying soldier, as you aptly said, Boy Scouts for adults. I was an army army cadet from 14 until I enlisted as a 16 yr old Junior Leader until I was almost 18 when I joined my senior regiment out in a Germany.
  
  19 to 27 days a year does not make you a soldier
  
- B Wells says:
  
  4 weeks ago
  
  Hey LR, regular army veteran here…… trust me Kenyon did not serve our country…….. the only respect we regulars had for Territorials, now known as reserve were the specialist fields like Doctors who actually knew what they were doing whenever they joined us on exercise in Germany.
  
  Cosplay soldiers who were rarely any better than the army cadets for kids. 19-27 days training g a year not even the basic 6 weeks training a 17+ year old recruit in the regular army. Those of us who start our regular service at 16 generally train until we are seventeen and a half to 18:before joining our senior regiments.
  
  The Canary has been more than fair in this article. Had an honest soldier been interviewed by the canary, if I had been asked I’d have wet myself laughing at his claim of serving the UK as a weekender running around in the woods shooting blanks and having thunder flashes thrown around.
  
  I had two roles in the army, field medic was my secondary role, my first was as an ambassador for the UK and British army and travel much of the globe doing so…… never firing a shot or even carrying a weapon and I did more to serve this country in that job in my first month than Kenyon did in a year. 19-27 day a year is less than a month.
  
  And seriously few of us ever really wanted to go to war and actually kill other human beings so your pish about about violating human rights says you never served and haven’t a clue if you think it’s only leftie lovers who don’t want to kill…a few psychopathies soldiers maybe but the cast majority hoped we would never have to face the idea of killing another human being.