A bad start for Goodwin

Matt Goodwin – the former academic turned hard-right rabble-rouser – has been named as Reform’s candidate for the Gorton & Denton by-election, with Nigel Farage cheering the GB News presenter was “coming home to Manchester” (the St Albans born and raised Goodwin spent three years as an undergraduate in neighbouring Salford).

Just how popular is Goodwin with his fellow Reformers, though? Way back in the depths of August 2024 Tim Montgomerie – founder of Conservative Home, now what passes for a thinker in Reform circles – reacted to a since-deleted X post by his now colleague with a pretty robust attack.

“There really is something sulphurous about Matt Goodwin,” he wrote. “Incendiary views. Suspect opinion polls. Massive self-obsession. British public life would be so much better without him.” How does Montgomerie feel about Goodwin now? It’s not clear, as curiously, and uniquely among senior Reform figures, he has yet to post a reaction to his selection as candidate.

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Goodwin has also quickly distanced himself from those Tories who have recently defected to Reform. Asked at his launch on Tuesday whether he would be happy for figures such as ex-chancellor Nadhim Zahawi and former home secretary Suella Braverman to come up and help him in the race, he said: “Well, my view has always been that Reform, when Nigel Farage really came back to Reform and got it going at the ‘24 general election, he was quite clear when he called it a people’s revolt.

“So I’ve never personally viewed, and I don’t think people at the top of Reform view it this way – I’ve never viewed it as a sort of Tory Party 2.0.” What a ringing endorsement of his new colleagues!

In fact, so poorly did Goodwin perform at his inaugural press conference – failing to know anything about local issues, unsurprisingly for a man with the flimsiest of connections with the constituency – that Lee Anderson, entrusted with chairing proceedings for the day, brought questions to an end and wrapped it up. It would be interesting to know how Anderson, who takes a Pol Pot-like approach to anyone who has ever read a book, feels about the former University of Kent man being parachuted in.

Certainly, some grassroots Reform members in the seat have cause to be aggrieved. Any member wishing to be considered as the candidate had to cough up a non-refundable £125. Now it looks like Goodwin, who has a GB News show to pontificate from, was going to get the nod all along.