“I am not a career politician. I am not a Tory”
19:34, 27 Jan 2026
The announcement of Matt Goodwin’s candidacy came complete with a crowned tiger’s head(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
A crowd had gathered beneath a faux tiger’s head, topped with a golden crown. Inside a packed bar and bistro covered in tropical wallpaper, the first battle lines have been drawn out.
The soundtrack? Earth, Wind and Fire’s September, Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill, Supertramp’s Breakfast in America, the Pet Shop Boy’s West End Girl, and finally, Cher’s Believe.
The was, perhaps, not the vibe popularly associated with Reform UK. Or any other political party for that matter.
But this is where the fight began for what what will be the hotly-contested Gorton and Denton by-election.
As the final strains of Cher’s ‘do you believe in life after love?’ faded out, GB News presenter Matt Goodwin was named as the Reform UK candidate. To members of the press gathered in Denton’s Vault 3, Mr Goodwin shared his long history with Greater Manchester.
This includes, he said, a family history of a grandfather who worked in a steel plant in the region. He added the area welcomed him with open arms as a student, explaining that he ‘delivered pizzas in the constituency 30 years ago’ while studying at the University of Salford.
He said: “This by-election is actually a referendum. It’s a referendum on Keir Starmer. 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.”
Matt Goodwin and Lee Anderson MP at the announcement(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
Recent history in this corner of Greater Manchester has been tumultuous. The by-election was triggered by the resignation of former MP Andrew Gwynne, who stood down citing health reasons, but followed a WhatsApp scandal with huge repercussions.
The group, known as Trigger Me Timbers, contained antisemitic comments, a joke about a dead pensioner, and jibes aimed at constituents. Within hours of it’s emergence, Gwynne had been sacked as a junior health minister and issued an apology for ‘misjudged’ messages.
Eventually standing down last week, he had served the constituency as an MP for 21-years.
At the last election in 2024, Labour won the seat with more than half the vote – 18,555 – with Reform coming second with 5,142 votes. It was enough for them to narrowly beat the Greens at 4,810.
Now, Reform UK see Gorton and Denton as a prime battleground ahead of a by-election scheduled February 26. The popularity of the party has grown significantly since 2024, and they will have no-doubt been buoyed by the Labour Party’s move to prevent Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham from putting his name forward for the vote.
Sir Keir Starmer has defended the decision by members of Labour’s National Executive Committee, arguing that allowing the Greater Manchester Mayor to stand would divert resources away from campaigns ahead of the local elections. The party is due to select its candidate for the Westminster seat on Saturday.
So far, five Greater Manchester councillors are understood to have been long-listed. These are Rabnawaz Akbar, Abid Latif Chohan, Julie Reid, Angeliki Stogia, and Eamon O’Brien.
As Labour works out its next steps, Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party is seeking to turn an opinion poll lead into votes at the ballot box.
Former Gorton and Denton MP Andrew Gwynne(Image: Getty Images)
But the road to victory has not been smooth. The party was mocked by Ashton-under-Lyne MP Angela Rayner and accused of ‘campaigning in the wrong constituency’. The party’s chief whip, Lee Anderson MP, had shared photographs on social media of himself and other Reform activists stood outside Stanley House Functions Rooms ahead of the vote.
Soon after, he was lampooned as it emerged the location isn’t in Gorton or Denton, but in the constituency of former deputy prime minister Rayner.
This afternoon (January 27), Mr Goodwin stood alongside Mr Anderson as he was unveiled in Denton. When questioned by the Manchester Evening News about the party’s views on scrapping Northern Powerhouse Rail, he admitted transportation will have to improve.
He stopped short, however, in explaining exactly how they would transform rail infrastructure desperately in need of an overhaul if Northern Powerhouse Rail did not go ahead.
Greater Manchester was first promised a major rail improvement under the 2009 HS2 plan. In the meantime, plans have been announced, only to be quietly shelved.
Infamously, revised, scaled-back proposals for Manchester were later promised and cancelled by the then-Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, speaking at the GMex without telling leaders beforehand.
Last month, Chancellor Rachel Reeves finally confirmed the latest iteration of Northern Powerhouse Rail (NPR) will go ahead. It was a solid promise of a new railway to Liverpool and better trans-Pennine links, all potentially meeting at a new underground Piccadilly station.
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham pictured with his mum after being blocked from running in the by-election(Image: Reach Commissioned)
The Chancellor has earmarked £45bn for the project, with £1.1b ‘released’ for the time being, to fund preparatory work for Yorkshire electrification and the new Manchester-Liverpool line. It will also pay for an economic assessment on the feasibility of building an underground Piccadilly, set to report in July.
Previously, Nigel Farage’s party said they would scrap the Manchester-Liverpool line, but have changed tact to call for an ‘urgent rethink’. A spokesperson said: “Reform has always supported more east-west transport schemes and routes in the north, even in our last iteration as the Brexit Party back in 2019, but we have always been against the hugely expensive HS2 project. If the previous Conservative government followed our advice those east-west routes would already be underway instead of wasting vast sums and time on HS2.
“The Northern Powerhouse Rail proposal by Labour is not only slower than existing trains… It is therefore poor value for money and needs an urgent rethink.”
Mr Goodwin is a writer, broadcaster and academic. Reform said in a statement prior to today’s reveal. He was, they said. ‘made by Manchester’, which Mr Goodwin called the ‘greatest city in the world’.
“He lived in the city for many years and considers it home,” the party said. “Matt’s family is from Manchester. His grandfather worked full time in a Manchester steel factory. His grandmother worked for the University of Salford, which Matt later attended.
“Both his parents worked for the NHS in Manchester – his father ran the Greater Manchester Health Authority and his mother went to college in the city before working for the health board.
Reform UK candidate Matt Goodwin(Image: Sean Hansford | Manchester Evening News)
“Matt was the first person in his family to go to university – he went to the University of Salford. He worked throughout his degree, even delivering fast food in the Gorton and Denton area.”
Today, the M.E.N. asked the Matt Goodwin what he would say to constituents, many of whom use the area’s strained rail links to get around the north, who would be left bereft if NPR was canned.
“I think, fundamentally, Reform is the only way that people in seats like this can ensure their voice and their views – on issues like transport, crime, immigration, HMOs, the decline of our high streets – is actually put onto the agenda,” he said.
“I don’t think that what we’re going to see in this constituency are people who are going to be wanting anything that remotely looks like the status quo, anything that’s gone before, anything that’s been pushed by Labour and the Tories.
“They’re going to want a complete break from that, and they’re going to want change. My view is where the agenda on levelling up went wrong is that it was never really taken seriously either by the Tories or the Labour Party.
“It was never really developed into a serious strategy. There was never really a sincerity to it, an authenticity to it.
“I think people saw it as a bit of a bolt-on, ‘let’s chuck the north a few scraps’. I don’t think we’ve ever really had proper political power, proper political representation given to areas outside of London, Oxford, and Cambridge.
“And I think Reform will change that. I think you’ll see that not only in this by-election, I think you’ll see it at the spring elections, you’ll see it at the local elections.
“Ultimately, to me, this is about political power. My view is London has had far too much political, economic, and cultural power and we need to start putting that power back in the hands of local people and areas outside of the south.”
Sitting Reform MP Lee Anderson, who introduced the new candidate at the press conference in Denton, added: “Yes, of course, we do want a better transport system for this region, but we want one that works properly. One that offers good value for money.”
The political commentator and former academic said he was “not a part of the establishment” and described the upcoming by-election as a “referendum on Keir Starmer”. Mr Goodwin 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.”
Deputy Labour leader Lucy Powell said: “Matt Goodwin represents the kind of politics that will drive a wedge between communities in Manchester. Reform have misjudged the mood around Manchester and they won’t put the priorities of working people first. They just offer division, animosity, and hatred – not the unity and pride which our city stands for.
“Only a vote for Labour can stop Reform’s toxic politics and guarantee residents have a local champion that will cut their cost of living as their new Labour MP.”