THE REFORM UK candidate the people of Denton can vote for in the forthcoming parliamentary by-election has been named.
However, there was little local detail as Matt Goodwin was unveiled.
The broadcaster has been chosen to stand for the group in the February 26 vote as a new parliamentarian is found after Andrew Gwynne – suspended from the Labour Party because of the Trigger Me Timbers WhatsApp scandal – was allowed to stand down on medical grounds.
Supporters gathered at the town’s Vault 2 for the ceremony, which was broadcast live on national TV on Tuesday, January 27 and attracted interest from the country’s biggest newspapers.
But there was little in terms of what is happening on the doorstep, sometimes literally, and what has been criticised.
No mention of spending millions of pounds of Levelling Up Fund money, no talk about the travel plans that are directly impacting the Crown Point junction the venue stands on, which have attracted criticism.
Just half a mile away, there have been moans about why it took three years to replace the St Anne’s Road bridge over the M67. Russell Scott Primary School, which is likely to see much-needed rebuilding work after years of problems – which were repeatedly highlighted in parliament – lies even closer.
And when The Correspondent asked if he would speak to owners of businesses looking to rejuvenate the area, like Aaron Schofield – the owner of the Vault 2 venue the was in – Mr Goodwin instead turned his answer into criticism of the Labour front bench.
He said: “That’s one of the big issues locally, but in order to do that you’ve got to start supporting small businesses much more than we’re doing currently.
“What we’re doing is we’re crippling small businesses in this seat, like we’re crippling them across the country with excessive regulation, high taxes, high business rates. So, businesses are going bust.
“We are sucking the lifeblood out of our economy by smashing the very things that used to drive it and used to make us a prosperous nation – small businesses, family-run businesses – and the Labour Party, Labour government clearly doesn’t get it.
“If you look at the front bench you can understand why they don’t get it. I don’t think there’s anybody that’s actually built a business on it.
“But there’s that view, ‘Well if we just clobber everybody with taxes and regulation and new laws’, the dynamism and prosperity get sucked out of it.
“That’s what we see in the high street, vape shops, endless fast food shops. It doesn’t look like the high street that I remember when I was a kid, and we’ve seen that over the last I mean 10-20 years and it’s accelerated. We’ve got to do something.”
On Gorton and Denton, he added: “I think there’s a view locally that relative to other parts of Greater Manchester this seat has been neglected, left behind and has been ignored.
“One thing that would help in a meaningful way is having somebody in this seat that is used to actually squaring up with Westminster and calling out nonsense and actually saying it as it is.
“The one thing that this campaign can bring is that attention, is a champion that would force Westminster to say, ‘Oh okay, we actually have to listen to this.’”
Dozens of Reform UK backers, including many from the Tameside branch of the party, looked on as Mr Goodwin was unveiled.
However, his campaign did not get off to the best of starts as a photo showing campaigners and Reform MP Lee Anderson, which claimed to be in the constituency, was actually at Audenshaw’s Stanley House, just over the border into Angela Rayner’s seat.
And as he pressed his connection to the area, saying, ‘Manchester made me,’ he told how he went to university in Salford, a separate city.
He told the ceremony as he claimed the by-election is ‘a referendum on Keir Starmer’: “Manchester made me, I’m incredibly grateful to Manchester.
“My grandfather worked seven days a week in a steel factory a few miles up the road, my grandmother worked for the University of Salford, both my parents worked for the National Health Service, defending the NHS in Manchester.
“When I became the first person in my family lucky enough to go to university, which city opened up its arms and let me in? Manchester. I went to the University of Salford and I ended up delivering pizzas in this seat 20 years ago.
“I want to try and give something back to this area that’s always supported me and let me be blunt, I have a national voice, I won’t be ignored and that means the people of Gorton and Denton won’t be ignored either.
“My promise to the local voters is simple but authentic, it’s real. I will serve you. I will work for you. I will fight for you.
“I will make sure you are heard. I will make sure you are respected and I will make sure you are never ignored again.
“This is your moment, a chance to make history, a chance to say enough is enough.
“I’m convinced we can win it. I’m convinced we can actually defeat Labour in this seat.”
Other parties are yet to declare their candidates for then Gorton and Denton by-election.
And it is believed 50 Labour MPs have written to Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer objecting to the party’s national executive committee’ decision to block Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham from standing.
Sir Keir has said allowing Burnham to contest the seat would have diverted Labour’s resources away from other important elections.
“Resources, whether that’s money or people, need to be focused on the elections that we must have, not elections that we don’t have to have,” he said.
And the NEC, which includes Sir Keir, said blocking Mr Burnham would “avoid an unnecessary mayoral election” to replace him should he be successful in the by-election.”