In a speech after being announced as Reform UK’s candidate for Gorton and Denton, Mr Goodwin had bragged he was ‘not part of the establishment’, and has repeatedly criticised the ‘elite class’
Matt Goodwin has been accused of hypocrisy for railing against the establishment while flying around the world speaking to international elites.
In a speech after being announced as Reform UK’s candidate for Gorton and Denton, Mr Goodwin had bragged he was “not part of the establishment”, and on his Substack has written at least 30 articles criticising the “elite class”.
However, his own website admits he “has spoken to hundreds of companies around the world” and lists his recent speaking engagements. These include a series of financial institutions such as the London Stock Exchange, Deutsche Bank, JP Morgan Asset Management, UBS, the US State Department, the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington D.C., Harvard’s Center for European Studies and the Open Society.
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Just last month, Mr Goodwin was the keynote speaker at the invite-only 3-day GRI Chairmen’s Retreat at Badrutt’s Palace Hotel, St. Moritz, Switzerland for world leaders in real estate. The event stated that “due to the concentration of top dealmakers gathered at this event, it has come to be known as a secluded treasure-trove of distilled information”.
The price for the event in 2026 is not public but in 2023 the cost was almost €10,000, while the average price of a single night’s stay at the Swiss Hotel was over £1,500 a night. Goodwin later posted on his LinkedIn saying he “very much enjoyed” the private conference for international real estate leaders at the luxury hotel.
Mr Goodwin is listed as bookable at various speaker agencies, including Denmark’s A-Speakers, London’s Champions Speakers Agency and the London Speaker’s Bureau, which markets itself as “the largest international network providing experts and advisers for corporations and governments all over the world”.
Responding, Andrew Western, Labour MP for Stretford and Urmston said: “Just a fortnight before standing as a candidate for Parliament and saying he was not part of the establishment, Matt Goodwin was speaking at a private conference in a luxury hotel in Switzerland for the global real estate elite.
“This isn’t someone standing up for the British people against elites – he is someone who lives and works at the heart of elite networks that shape global politics and finance, and then boasts about it. Goodwin’s rhetoric about “the establishment” collapses under the weight of his own bragging.
“Labour’s local candidate in Gorton and Denton Angeliki Stogia is on the side of working people and the local community, focused on delivering practical support for families, jobs and public services here at home. In contrast, Goodwin’s own CV reveals a figure more at ease with global elites than with the everyday struggles of ordinary Britons.”
A Reform spokesman said: “For the last twenty years through his award winning research and his best selling works, Matt has given talks around the world to government, corporations and other prestigious organisations. He uses these talks to explain to elites just out of touch they are and why they are so disconnected from the wants and needs of hard-working people.”


