Matthew Goodwin

Reform UK

Matthew Goodwin is a British political commentator, author and Reform UK activist.

Goodwin supports Reform UK and stood as the party’s candidate in the February 2026 Gorton and Denton by-election. He was appointed as honorary president of Reform’s student organisation in 2025.

Goodwin’s academic work explored themes of populism, national identity and immigration. He currently runs a popular Substack page.

Political career and public life

Goodwin was selected as the Reform UK candidate for the Gorton and Denton by-election. Speaking at a press conference in January 2026, where he was unveiled as Reform’s candidate, Goodwin said he was not a “career politician” or part of the “Westminster blob”.

He stated: “I will stand up for the local people of Gorton and Denton against the broken Westminster establishment. I will demand Britain fixes its borders, invests in our National Health Service, and clamps down on crime and anti-social behaviour.”

Goodwin ultimately placed second in the Gorton and Denton by-election. He won 10,578 votes (28.7%), while the victorious Green candidate, Hannah Spencer, won 14,980 votes (40.7%).

Responding to the defeat, Goodwin claimed that there was “concerningly high levels” of family voting on polling day.

Goodwin’s selection as the Reform UK candidate in Gorton and Denton followed months in which he established himself as right-wing political commentator.

In 2025, Goodwin was announced as the latest presenter on GB News. He was unveiled as a new host of State of the Nation, sharing on-camera responsibilities with former Conservative MP Sit Jacob Rees-Mogg.

Goodwin served as a professor of politics in the School of Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent for nine years, departing in July 2024. He previously held academic posts at the University of Manchester and the University of Nottingham.

Goodwin has authored and co-authored several prominent books, including Revolt on the Right: Explaining Support for the Radical Right in Britain (2014, with Robert Ford), UKIP: Inside the Campaign to Redraw the Map of British Politics (2015, with Caitlin Milazzo), Brexit: Why Britain Voted to Leave the European Union (2017, with Harold D. Clarke and Paul Whiteley), National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberal Democracy (2018, with Roger Eatwell), and Values, Voice and Virtue: The New British Politics (2023).

It has been noted that Goodwin’s support for right-wing politics actualised after years of studying the rise of populism on the British right.

Goodwin’s early academic work was focused on examining the rise of far right groups like the British National Party (BNP). Between 2013 and 2015, he served as an adviser to the government on tackling anti-Muslim hatred.

Writing in 2023, Goodwin said he had been “a fully paid-up member of the liberal left —reading and writing for the Guardian, working for left-wing think-tanks, advising Labour MPs, speaking almost exclusively at left-wing events and conferences, socialising with left-wing academics, even having lunch with one David Aaronovitch.”

He added: “But today I find myself in a very different space. Most of my friends are now on the right, not the left. Most of the writers I find interesting are on the right, not the left. And most of the arguments I find intellectually stimulating and coherent are in the same place.”

A July 2025 Prospect profile of Goodwin stated: “Shortly after that, Goodwin went on what in politics is euphemistically called a journey. Gone were the excursions into the dark heart of right-wing radicalisation. Gradually the political scientist began to metamorphose into the fire-breathing pugilist we see today.”

Political Views

Goodwin is a vocal critic of high levels of immigration. His 2026 book, entitled Suicide of a Nation, centred on this topic.

Goodwin previously supported Kemi Badenoch in the 2022 Conservative Party leadership election, describing her as “one of the most interesting Conservatives in British politics for a very long time.”

Goodwin has described “wokeism” as a “pseudo-religion”, writing critically of its alleged influence on academic institutions in particular.

In 2021, when the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities argued that structural racism did not exist in the UK, Goodwin claimed this “dismantles the woke mob’s central claim that we are living in a fundamentally racist society.”

Before Politics

Matthew James Goodwin was born in December 1981. He was born and raised in St Albans, Hertfordshire.

Goodwin studied politics and contemporary history at the University of Salford, graduating in 2003. He obtained a master’s degree in political science from the University of Western Ontario in 2004.

Goodwin completed a PhD in political science at the University of Bath in 2007.

As an academic, Goodwin taught and researched politics.