GB News presenter Matt Goodwin has been named as the Reform UK candidate for the Gorton and Denton by-election.
The political commentator and former academic said he was “not a part of the establishment” as he insisted that the forthcoming parliamentary contest was a “referendum on Keir Starmer”.
Appearing at a press conference in the constituency to announce his candidacy, he said: “I am not a career politician. I am not a Tory.
“I am not part of the establishment. I am not part of the Westminster blob.
“I am, like many people in this seat and millions of people in this country, hard-working taxpayers who are just fed up of watching what is happening to their communities and to their home.”
In a speech after being introduced by the party’s chief whip Lee Anderson, he said: “This by-election is actually a referendum. It’s a referendum on Keir Starmer.
I will be standing for Reform UK in the Gorton & Denton by-election on February 26th.
— Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) January 27, 2026
This election is a referendum on Keir Starmer as Prime Minister.
If you want him out, vote Reform. pic.twitter.com/RC4py5J2TI
“It’s a chance for hard-working, law-abiding people, tax-paying people from this seat to have their say on Keir Starmer and to make political history.”
Mr Goodwin declined to say whether he wanted the string of prominent former Conservative MPs who have recently defected to Reform to campaign on his behalf in Greater Manchester.
Asked 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.
“Now my view has always been that the power behind this people’s revolt has to, as the name implies, it has to come from the people from across the political spectrum, left, right, centre, none of the above.
“That’s what will give this strength, and ultimately, that’s what will fix our political system and fix the country.”
He said: “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.
“I’ve got lots of friends in the party who are former Labour people, former Lib Dem people, none of the above people.”
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