Reform UK has unveiled politics professor-turned GB News presenter and activist Matt Goodwin, who famously ate his own book live on Sky News, as its candidate to stand in the high-profile Gorton and Denton by-election.
No, this isn’t a fever dream. Goodwin has held academic positions at the Universities of Manchester, Nottingham and Kent, where he taught and researched politics, and wrote books on populism, Brexit and the rise of Reform forerunner UKIP, which was also led by Reform director Nigel Farage at the time.
Around the time of the Brexit Referendum in 2016, however, Goodwin appeared to have some kind of Damascene conversion. As James Paul put it in the New European in 2024: “Goodwin’s public persona began to transform from that of someone explaining how to counter populist and far-right movements to someone explaining them, justifying their ends, or acting as something of an apologist for them.”
Goodwin has himself stated that he did not vote in the referendum, but that he began to shift his opinions when he was ostracised by “90%” of his academic peers for merely arguing that the vote should be allowed to happen.
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Speaking at a press conference announcing his selection yesterday, Goodwin said he was “not part of the establishment” or the “Westminster blob” and promised to give people in the constituency “a voice” in parliament.
He was keen to emphasise his Mancunian credentials too, noting that, as a student, he had delivered pizzas in the Gorton and Denton area. He also told the audience “Manchester made me,” adding that his grandfather worked at a steel factory in the city while his mother worked for the University of Salford, which he would himself attend, although he was born and raised in St Albans according to his own profile on corporate event speakers’ agency, the London Speaker Bureau’s, booking website.
Perhaps his most famous moment so far came at the time of the 2017 election, when he Tweeted that if Labour under Jeremy Corbyn polled more than 38%, he would eat his own (recently published, as it happens) book, Brexit: Why Britain Voted to Leave the European Union:
Labour came in with 40.3%, although still lost, and true to his word (or perhaps just not shy of some free publicity for his latest tome “which is available at all god bookstores”) he took to Sky News to do the necessary.
The by-election in the Greater Manchester constituency was triggered by the resignation of Andrew Gwynne, who stepped down for “health reasons,” and has attracted somewhat more attention than your average suburban by-election might thanks to Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham’s attempt to stand for selection, which has already been widely covered elsewhere – PM Keir Starmer’s latest take on the party’s decision to block Burnham’s efforts, and trigger a new mayoral election should he win, is that Labour’s resources should be “focused on the elections that we must have, not the elections that we don’t have to have.”
Around 50 Labour MPs had last night signed a letter urging the Labour NEC to reconsider its decision, although Manchester Central MP and Labour deputy leader Lucy Powell, the only NEC member to vote in favour of Burnham’s candidacy, told BBC News last night she was not one of them and that she had “moved on.” (Hopefully to finally reading the email I sent her in November about retrospectively increasing earning requirements for “immigrant” spouses.)
At the 2024 general election, Labour won the seat with a 13,000 majority. Reform UK came second with 5,000 votes, narrowly beating the Green Party into third. George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain came fourth, and also announced its candidate yesterday as local councillor Shabaz Sarwar.
Other parties are yet to announce their candidates for the by-election, which is expected to take place on 26 February, with all eyes on who Labour will put up in place of the “King of the North” to defeat Reform’s crowd pleaser, and whether the popular Green leader Zack Polanski will throw his hat into the ring, despite his expressed preference to contest a London seat, as a more likely Reform beater than any Labour candidate except Burnham.
For his part, Goodwin has attempted to frame the election as a “referendum on Keir Starmer.” He added: “It’s a chance for hard-working, law-abiding people, taxpaying people from this seat to have their say on Keir Starmer and to make political history.”
Labour deputy Powell countered that Goodwin: “Represents the kind of politics that will drive a wedge between communities in Manchester. [Reform] just offer division, animosity, and hatred – not the unity and pride which our city stands for.”
