Responding to Owen Jones, Matt Goodwin has sought to establish his Manchester credentials. Primarily what he’s done, however, is confirm that he has never lived in the constituency where he’s standing for Reform:

You know nothing about me Owen

My parents divorced when I was 5

My dad moved to Manchester when I was 12 and led the local NHS

I spent my weekends and holidays in Manchester

I went to Salford uni

I studied next to the steel factory where my grandfather worked his whole… https://t.co/iF0vY5FF5f

— Matt Goodwin (@GoodwinMJ) January 28, 2026

Like Goodwin, I’m also an on-again, off-again migrant to Manchester, so I’m ideally placed to run you through what he’s saying here.

Gorton and Denton

For reference, Gorton and Denton is one of the poorer areas of Manchester. As you can see from the following statistics, it’s above the national averages in terms of the poverty people experience:

• Estimated households in fuel poverty: 33.4% (17.9% national average).
• Estimated child poverty: 47.2% (29.3% national average).
• Worried about not being able to pay their energy bills in the next year: 56.2% (53.5% national average).

Like Goodwin, I’ve never lived or worked in Gorton and Denton. I have worked in Ashton-under-Lyne, however, which is right next door. It’s so next door, in fact, that Reform MP Lee Anderson took a picture there the other day when he was supposed to be canvassing in Gorton and Denton.

Lee, oh 30p Lee, Lee Anderson by-election campaigning in the wrong constituency https://t.co/VV4aRPs2nj

— Kevin Maguire (@Kevin_Maguire) January 27, 2026

The Mancunian Reformer

Here’s what Goodwin said first:

You know nothing about me Owen

My parents divorced when I was 5

My dad moved to Manchester when I was 12 and led the local NHS

I spent my weekends and holidays in Manchester

Leading the local NHS is good, but maybe not something to brag about when Reform keeps threatening to kill it:

The latest Tory defecator to the Reform Ltd company @AndrewRosindell reveals his preference for a privatised, insurance based healthcare system – you know, like the one that works so well in the US that 40% of the population have no health cover. This is what Reform Ltd really…

— Andy Burge (@AndyGJBurge) January 25, 2026

We should add that if his dad was ‘leading’ the NHS, he was some sort of senior manager. Goodwin does his best to present himself as working class, but most working class Mancunians don’t have dads in upper management.

Goodwin continued:

I went to Salford uni

I respect this, because I also went to Salford University. The thing about Salford, though, is that it’s not Manchester; that’s why it’s called ‘Salford’ and not ‘Manchester’.

Goodwin continued:

I studied next to the steel factory where my grandfather worked his whole life

At the same university where my grandmother worked

Again, he’s talking about Salford. Obviously in this day and age it’s unlikely Mancunians are going to be up in arms because he’s more of a Salford lad, but still…

Goodwin added:

I worked in Burnage, Didsbury, and Withington

For those who don’t know, Didsbury is one of the poshest parts of Manchester, and it has been forever. I used to live in Withington, but was eventually priced out of the area as Manchester became more expensive (it was probably more normal when Goodwin worked there). Burnage I’m less familiar with, but like Didsbury and Withington, it’s South Manchester.

If you’ve lived there, you’ll know South Manchester has very different vibes than the outer boroughs. I’d imagine few people in Gorton and Denton are going to be impressed that he worked in Withington, with its plentiful vegan cafes and drum circles.

Made in Manchester

Finally, Goodwin says:

I then went back to Manchester for another 5 years

I worked for the uni

I lived in Castlefield

I didn’t parachute into Manchester — this place made me

Castlefield is Manchester City Centre, which has been fairly expensive for all of this century and massively expensive more recently. Working at Manchester University means Goodwin is an academic, which isn’t really the best look when Reform rails against people who know things. This is especially problematic for Goodwin. As we’ve covered before, he’s also been ingrained in the establishment dinner party circuit for years.

To be fair to Goodwin, it’s not wrong for him to say he’s a Manchester lad. If you’ve lived there, you’ll know it’s an incredibly transient city, and many of the people you’ll meet are national and international migrants. At the same time, that’s significantly less true of an outer borough like Gorton & Denton.

Goodwin’s grandad might have worked in a ‘steel’ mill, but that doesn’t mean Goodwin gets to ‘steal’ working class valour.

Featured image via David Dixon (Wikimedia)

By Willem Moore

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