Reform UK have unveiled GB News presenter and academic turned activist Matt Goodwin as their candidate to stand in the Gorton and Denton by-election.
Speaking at a press conference, 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.
The by-election in the Greater Manchester constituency was triggered by the resignation of Andrew Gwynne, who stepped down for health reasons.
Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham had hoped to stand to be the constituency’s MP but was blocked by Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee, a move that has angered some MPs.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who chairs the committee, said Labour’s resources should be “focused on the elections that we must have, not the elections that we don’t have to have”.
If Burnham had been successful in a by-election it would have triggered a mayoral election to replace him in Greater Manchester.
Around 50 Labour MPs have signed a letter urging the NEC to reconsider its decision.
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 party.
Meanwhile, George Galloway’s Workers Party of Britain has also announced its candidate as Manchester councillor Shabaz Sarwar.
Other parties are yet to announce their candidates for the by-election, which is expected to take place on 26 February.
Goodwin said the by-election was “a referendum on Keir Starmer”.
“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,” he said.
He 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 Goodwin later attended.
He said that as a student he had delivered pizzas in the Gorton and Denton area.
Labour’s deputy leader Lucy Powell said Goodwin “represents the kind of politics that will drive a wedge between communities in Manchester”.
“They [Reform] just offer division, animosity, and hatred – not the unity and pride which our city stands for,” she added.
Liberal Democrat Cabinet Office spokesperson Lisa Smart said: “Goodwin has made a career out of talking our country down – he is a professional wind-up merchant, more interested in chasing headlines than putting an end to the cost of living crisis facing families.”
Green Party leader Zack Polanski said: “It tells you everything you need to know that Reform are parachuting in a rent-an-extremist… Manchester will show him the door.”
As an academic, Goodwin taught and researched politics, writing books on populism, Brexit and the rise of UKIP, another right-wing party which was also led by Nigel Farage.
In recent years he has slightly moved away from studying the politics of the right to becoming an activist, frequently speaking at Reform UK events.
Writing in 2023, he said he had been “a fully paid-up member of the liberal left” but now found himself “in a very different space”.
Speaking to Political Thinking with Nick Robinson in 2024, he said the Brexit referendum was one turning point when his approach to politics changed.
“I saw essentially many people around me, 90% of people in universities decide that half of the country were racists and ignorant thickos… because they happened to vote for something that the elite class didn’t believe in,” he told the podcast.
He said he did not vote in the Brexit referendum but became “a black sheep” among academics after arguing that the vote should be implemented.
