Keir Starmer said the Gorton and Denton by-election will be a straight fight between Labour and Reform, and hit out at the choice of Matthew Goodwin as Reform UK’s candidate
Keir Starmer has taken a swipe at Reform’s new by-election candidate – and warned only Labour could stop the party’s toxic politics.
The Prime Minister said Nigel Farage ’s party would bring division to Gorton and Denton, where a pivotal by-election is being held next month. Matthew Goodwin, a former academic turned GB News presenter and hard right activist, was unveiled as Reform’s candidate on Tuesday.
Mr Goodwin has expressed hardline views on British nationality and Islam, and this week refused to disown his claim that UK-born people from minority ethnic backgrounds are not necessarily British. Reform is expected to throw everything at trying to pull off an upset in Greater Manchester seat, that would give them a foothold in Labour heartlands.
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And the Greens are vying to be seen as the party to stop Reform in the by-election. Speaking to journalists on a plane to China, the Prime Minister said: “There’s only one party that can stop Reform, and that’s the Labour Party.
“And we can already see what the by-election is going to be about, which is Labour values, which are about delivering, focusing on the cost of living, with a strong record actually in that constituency of what we’ve already done versus Reform.
“And you can see from their candidates what politics they’re going to bring to that constituency, the politics of division, of toxic division and tearing people apart. That is not what that constituency is. That’s not what Manchester is about.
“So this is a straight fight between Labour and Reform, and there’s only one party that can stop the politics of reform in the by-election, and that’s the Labour Party.”
The by-election is a high-stakes moment for Mr Starmer who is facing anger from his own MPs after Andy Burnham was barred from standing. The PM and other top brass voted to block Mr Burnham’s request to quit as Greater Manchester Mayor to stand, blaming the cost of an unexpected mayoral by-election ahead of elections across Britain in May.
Mr Starmer said: “I was pretty certain that we would retain Manchester, of course, but the point is in order to retain it we’d have to put our resource, our money and our people into an election we didn’t need to have. That would inevitably have been at the expense of the elections we have to have.”
The PM also sought to play down the rift with Mr Burnham, who is widely seen as a potential leadership rival. Asked if he would welcome him back as an MP once his term is served, he said: “As to what he wants to do when he’s not Mayor of Manchester anymore, that’s a matter for Andy, but he’s doing a first class job.”