Starmer Attack on Reform’s Pick Shows His Future on the Line

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(Bloomberg) — Keir Starmer stepped up his attacks on Nigel Farage’s Reform UK party ahead of a special election that could decide the prime minister’s political future.

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Starmer said Reform’s choice of candidate for the parliamentary by-election — controversial academic turned media personality Matt Goodwin — revealed its “toxic” politics. The right-wing party announced Goodwin’s candidacy on Tuesday, while Labour’s pick remains uncertain after Starmer blocked Greater Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham, a key rival, from standing in the seat.

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The PM is under intense pressure to secure a Labour win at the by-election in Gorton and Denton, an area near Manchester in north-west England, on Feb. 26. The constituency was won by Labour candidate Andrew Gwynne in 2024, who quit his post last week, and losing it would provide another flashpoint to call Starmer’s premiership into doubt.

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While Labour decides on its own candidate, Starmer has stepped into the breach to warn voters against Reform.

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“You can see from their candidate what politics they’re going to bring to that constituency: the politics of division, of toxic division and tearing people apart,” the prime minister told reporters while traveling to Beijing Wednesday.

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“That is not what that constituency is. That is not what Manchester is about,” he added.

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Farage’s party are the bookmakers’ favorites to win the by-election, followed by the Green Party and then Labour. That’s an indictment of the governing party’s popularity 18 months on from winning power, especially as Greater Manchester is typically a Labour-friendly area.

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“This by-election is a referendum on Keir Starmer and his hopeless government,” a spokesperson for Reform said, arguing that a Labour victory would result in “more of the same uncontrolled mass immigration, broken borders, record high taxes, surging energy bills, and all the rest.”

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Starmer’s remarks suggest that while Labour is privately nervous that it’s going to lose the seat, although Reform selection of Goodwin means it could be more competitive than first thought.

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Goodwin has been on a political journey in recent years, shooting to prominence as a political scientist with mainstream politics before he embraced anti-immigration rhetoric, eventually joining Reform.

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His selection continues a trend of Reform politicians tending toward incendiary rhetoric and TV expertise in ways that resemble President Donald Trump’s MAGA movement.

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Labour has previously described Goodwin as someone with “unpleasant views on race,” a charge he has denied.

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Goodwin has in the past suggested UK citizens from minority ethnic backgrounds are not necessarily British, saying “it takes more than a piece of paper to make somebody ‘British’,” and has described Islamism as the “UK’s single biggest threat,” blaming mass migration for the July 2005 bombings and more recent terror attacks.

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When asked about his past remarks at his campaign launch, the Reform candidate responded, “it’s not about what your religion is, it’s not about what your race is, what your ethnicity is, it’s about whether or not you play by the rules,” but added he did not support mass migration or “woke ideology.”

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More than 40% of Gorton and Denton’s population identified as coming from an ethnic minority background in the 2021 census, with 28% of the area identifying as Muslim.

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Speaking to reporters, Starmer also sought to draw a line under his rift with Burnham, who wanted to stand in the Gorton seat but whose candidacy was rejected by the premier and his allies at weekend as they feared he would use it as a launchpad to mount a leadership challenge.

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Starmer said he spoke to Burnham on Monday and praised his record as mayor and also as a former Member of Parliament.

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—With assistance from James Woolcock.

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