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Politics Home | Greens Frame By-Election As Battle Against “Anti-Muslim Record” Of Reform’s Matthew Goodwin
Green Party leader Zack Polanski and deputy leader Mothin Ali in Bradford, January 2026 (Credit: Neil Terry/Alamy Live News)
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The Green Party will put Reform candidate Matthew Goodwin’s “record of anti-Muslim bigotry”, along with a message of “unity and hope”, at the forefront of its campaign to win the Gorton and Denton by-election, PoliticsHome understands.
Goodwin, a GB News presenter and former academic associated with the populist right, has been selected as Reform UK’s candidate for the parliamentary by-election in Greater Manchester next month.
A critic of the concept of Islamophobia, he recently wrote that ”the ruling class in the UK is moving to shut down public debate about Islam.”
He has also suggested in the past that being born and raised in Britain does not necessarily mean that people are British, saying: “It takes more than a piece of paper to make somebody ‘British’.”
In Gorton and Denton, a Labour seat represented by Andrew Gwynne until his resignation last week, more than a quarter of voters identify as Muslim and 44 per cent as being from an ethnic minority background.
PoliticsHome reported on Monday that Muslim Vote, a pressure group focussed on who Muslims should support in elections, has decided to endorse the Greens over Labour and George Galloway’s Workers’ Party.
PoliticsHome also understands that Jeremy Corbyn and Zarah Sultana’s Your Party could endorse the Greens in the by-election. The decision will be discussed this week at a meeting of Your Party’s members’ oversight committee, which is currently running the party alongside the Independent Alliance MPs.
The Green Party intends to frame the by-election to voters as a straight battle between itself and Reform.
A Green source said on Sunday: “We’ve been on the doorsteps in Gorton and Denton, and the Labour vote has collapsed. It’s between the Greens and Reform. This is game on.”
“In the past, you would mention Keir Starmer and people would laugh dismissively. Now canvassers say voters are angry towards him,” a Green source added on Tuesday.
Expecting to face a “top-heavy, Farage-led” campaign with heavy expenditure, the Greens plan to portray Reform as being on the side of big donors and Donald Trump.
PoliticsHome has contacted Reform for comment.
On the first day that the by-election date of 26 February was confirmed, a source said hundreds of activists signed up to knock on doors for the Green Party, and leader Zack Polanski’s rally on Tuesday evening is sold out.
Ahead of the hustings on Thursday and selection on Friday, Green sources said the three “serious” contenders to become the party’s candidate are Green deputy leader Mothin Ali, Trafford council’s Green group leader Hannah Spencer, and Fesl Reza-Khan, the Green candidate in Oldham in 2024.
Of the three, Spencer – a plumber by trade – is considered the favourite to win the selection. “Hannah seems most popular in the local parties by far,” one source said.
While all three are known to have made clear indications in private that they intend to stand, none is allowed to publicly declare their bids as the Green Party has ruled out campaigning ahead of the selection.
Unlike in the Labour Party, there is no formal shortlisting process in the Greens. Instead, there are pre-candidate interviews undertaken by panels that do not have the power to stop applicants from running but will instead recommend or decline to recommend candidates to local members.
To qualify for selection, PoliticsHome understands there is a low threshold in place: an applicant must secure the nominations of two members from either Manchester or Tameside Green parties, which both cover the constituency.
Labour sources said the party, still divided over Andy Burnham’s blocking, will be fighting hard keep hold of the seat, though there is little optimism that they will be able to do so. “If we win, that’ll be the surprise,” one senior pro-Starmer source said.
However, some Labour MPs have sought to publicly push back against claims that the party is on course to lose the seat that it won with over 50 per cent of the vote in 2024.
“Labour people should be booking their train to the Gorton & Denton by-election and knocking on doors in support of whoever is selected and our party, not speculating about losing or perpetuating the psychodrama,” John Slinger MP posted on X.
