Suella leaves the Sinking Ship

Meandrogrog

Susieq62

Matt Goodwin now a candidate for the by election! A nasty right wing anti immigrant facist is being lauded by Reform , wow!!!

He talks a lot of good sense IMO.

Same here. Fellow panellists from other parties never get one over on him because he argues so well, remembers stats facts and figures and has so much political experience.

Who cares what these reactionary parties aspire to? They’ve failed everyone.Ece-t they’re self serving selves.Starmer close behind. A new approach is needed if you care about the vulnerable-some of us, the disabled, some of us, the next gen. And the planet. Tories and Reform don’t give a fif

Oh dear. Soon going to be conservative party mark 2. RETORY

knspol

'Out of interest, the petition calling for automatic by-elections when sitting MPs change parties has passed the 100,000 signatures needed for a debate on it.'
Did not know of this petition but think it's a very good idea

I did link to it about a week ago...

Maremia

Wasn't Suella B the Home Secretary at one time and therefor responsible for immigration? How well did she do then?
What makes you think her skills have improved?

She couldnt get through anything like what she wanted to get through.
Is how I remember it.

Surprised she stayed in the conservative Party so long.

I remember her being sacked. What was it for ?

Agree! In thegrand scheme of things I don't give a stuff but her constituents might! Should be a by election

Maremia

I remember her being sacked. What was it for ?

She was sacked by Liz Truss after it was revealed she had breached the ministerial code by sharing confidential cabinet papers on immigration policy with long-time ally, Tory MP Sir John Hayes. She used her personal email to send the papers to Hayes wife but sent it to another MP by mistake. An investigation later revealed that Braverman had used her personal email for official business on multiple occasions, with reports suggesting she forwarded government papers to her personal email up to 127 times.

Then she was sacked by Rishi Sunak after she wrote an article for The Times in which accused the Metropolitan Police of bias in the policing of protests. She had defied a Downing Street request to tone the article down.

A bit of a loose cannon but it would be fun if her inability to grasp the mechanics of sending emails means she leaks confidential Reform comms.

Susieq62

Matt Goodwin now a candidate for the by election! A nasty right wing anti immigrant facist is being lauded by Reform , wow!!!

I hadn't heard of him until I saw him on Question Time a few months ago, he came across as a very unpleasant character.

As I said before am all for by-elections when an MP swaps horses midstream, but in Braverman’s case if her constituents voted her in whilst being in full possession of the facts regarding her far from competent term in government, being sacked twice, and having made nasty racist remarks in the HoC, I imagine they will applaud her defection to Reform and support her wholeheartedly.

Photo Lee Anderson and Matt Goodwin just before setting out to try to find the constituency.

An idiot’s guide to running a byelection campaign. First, know your constituency boundaries. Sometimes easier said than done. On Tuesday morning, Lee Anderson was to be found doing a photo op for the Gorton and Denton byelection by posing outside the Stanley hotel. Which just happens to be in Angela Rayner’s constituency. Shame that someone pointed out Anderson’s mistake. He could happily have spent the next four weeks knocking on the wrong doors.
www.theguardian.com/politics/2026/jan/27/reforms-matt-goodwin-is-sure-hes-the-right-man-for-gorton-and-denton-he-just-doesnt-know-why

I like Lee Anderson, he makes me laugh. Pity he’s not their leader.

Anyone who wants to bring back the death penalty because of it's 100% success rate or thinks it is possible to feed someone on 30p a day isn't funny. However, I'm sure his views are raising a laugh in the Reform party.

Goodwin has one line immigration, immigration, immigration ! No mention of health care, transport, education , defence, environment strategies on his platform but if that’s what the people want, that is what they will get ! Somebody, quite young, called him out on Question Time saying that all Goodwin had was the immigrant rhetoric! He had no response !
I suspect he left his university post under a cloud sector his views!

Contrary to your beliefs and knowledge Primrose, Goodwin had no political experience at all not even as a local councillor! He is on GB News as a mouthpiece ! All he has done is published very right wing, anti immigrant material ! That is not political expertise but he is very “ in” with the Hungarian prime minister if that helps you!! I suspect he has been indoctrinated somewhere along the line as he has not always been like this!

IMO Reform is all about immigration and has very little to say about anything else other than to blame the country's problems on immigrants. As it was Holocaust Day yesterday, I don't think it's inappropriate to mention that the Nazis had a similar tactic, they blamed Germany's problems on the Jews and other minority groups like gypsies. This got them into power and allowed them to develop internal structures with which to control the population and commit the horrendous crimes that they did. I'm afraid I see a similar pattern in the US with how ICE and the Border police are being used. This is not what many Trump voters thought they were getting but it's what they got!
Most of the population don't want uncontrolled immigration but many of us don't link all the problems we face as a country with desperate people arriving on boats so we look at political parties that offer more than just a view on immigration. The people that have joined Reform will say they don't have racist views but you only have to look at their past behaviour to have serious questions in your mind. Unless of course you share their views!

I do think that immigration is something that needs to be tackled but both here and in the US it has become the ONLY thing that takes up political headspace. And this concerns me. The fact is this country is suffering intolerable levels of child poverty, increasing numbers of people using food banks, a lack of jobs that offer workers the possibility to raise their heads above the water line, zero workers rights in many instances, a cost of living crisis, a lack of affordable housing, an education system that isn’t up to par, and an angry population turning on immigrants as a scapegoat.
We need political giants not pygmies or far right populist snake oil salesmen just trying to line their own pockets.
I think we all need to take our heads out of the sand and look across the pond to see where this circus is leading us.

I agree nanna8, I would love Lee Anderson to be their leader.

If voters can't see the danger in voting Reform, what benefits do they see?
'Get things done', but which things?

As I understand it, Goodwin left academia because he felt his career was being stalled by the left wing liberal elite which he saw as controlling the academic establishment. He co wrote an apparently well regarded study of Ukip about 10 years ago but his views have morphed from disinterested academic interest in right and far right politics into wholesale embrace of their beliefs.

His ‘back story’ appears to be questionable. The story of his parents working for the NHS is slightly at odds with an article he wrote for the Daily Mail in 2020 in which he said he was brought up by his single parent mother in a working class environment in St Albans, his father having left when Goodwin was 5. I’m surprised his current ‘biography’ appears to be placing him in a more middle class milieu than his previously chosen working class one. Perhaps it’s thought that a touch of class will impress voters. Or the ‘NHS’ touch..🤔

Fallingstar

I do think that immigration is something that needs to be tackled but both here and in the US it has become the ONLY thing that takes up political headspace. And this concerns me. The fact is this country is suffering intolerable levels of child poverty, increasing numbers of people using food banks, a lack of jobs that offer workers the possibility to raise their heads above the water line, zero workers rights in many instances, a cost of living crisis, a lack of affordable housing, an education system that isn’t up to par, and an angry population turning on immigrants as a scapegoat.
We need political giants not pygmies or far right populist snake oil salesmen just trying to line their own pockets.
I think we all need to take our heads out of the sand and look across the pond to see where this circus is leading us.

Oh this! Take heed Reformers- it was never about immigration but about unregulated power and greed.
You have been used by them, and they will use you even more if you vote for them.

This is from The London Economic
“The irony was off the scale this week after Nigel Farage said people can “never trust a Tory,” prompting everyone to make the same point.

Safe to say, it’s not been a great few days for Farage. After a by-election defeat in Caerphilly where voters rejected Reform, the Clacton MP then tasted more defeat in the Commons where his bill to withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights was shot down.

At the same time, his party has been embroiled in controversy following awful comments from its MPs about black people in TV adverts and the concerns that the UK could be led by a “LGBT-supporting” party.

To round things off, Farage has been widely mocked this week for a video he posted on X, in which he claimed Tories can ‘never be trusted.’

In the video, Farage claimed the Conservative Party had “ditched” their policy on Indefinite Leave to Remain, something Kemi Badenoch then denied.

Farage shared the video on his X account with the caption “Never trust a Tory”, prompting many to point out the irony of this given that Reform is full of former Tories”.

GrannyGravy13

Caleo

Cossy

Yet another escapee joins Reform’s home for fed up Tories, time to change the name to Conform??

Why don’t these defections trigger by-elections?

Cossy, is it that the Tories is a sinking ship that motivates Tory MPs to defect to Reform?

I am hoping it is because the Conservative Party is moving away from the so called far right and regrouping to a more traditional right of centre position.

For those MP’s who are unhappy with this, then I suppose Reform is a more natural fit.

Thanks GG. I understand.

Oh this! Take heed Reformers- it was never about immigration but about unregulated power and greed.
You have been used by them, and they will use you even more if you vote for them.

I don’t think there is any point in trying to convert people by pointing out the evils of their chosen party. They just double down on their allegiance.

I think that the best way to minimise allegiance to Farage and his despicable party would be for the government to very demonstrably do what it was voted in for. That is, act to reduce the cost of living, to restore the NHS, and to improve public services. Even, perhaps, to defend most of the population against the rapacity of those who seek to make money from them. Make life more comfortable and fulfilling for all citizens and they will be less susceptible to glib populism.

The problem is that this really requires a radical change in economic policy from the neoliberal market focussed strategy which has driven policies of all governments from Thatcher onwards. Unfortunately, both politicians, commentators and the general public are generally convinced that there is no alternative, so go on doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Neoliberalism is destroying our economy and our democracy.

Susieq62

Contrary to your beliefs and knowledge Primrose, Goodwin had no political experience at all not even as a local councillor! He is on GB News as a mouthpiece ! All he has done is published very right wing, anti immigrant material ! That is not political expertise but he is very “ in” with the Hungarian prime minister if that helps you!! I suspect he has been indoctrinated somewhere along the line as he has not always been like this!

“all he has done”? I would say his record is very impressive for such a young person.

www.matthewjgoodwin.org/