Prime minister says Reform seeking to ‘tear people apart’ after Gorton and Denton candidate questions whether all UK-born people are British
Keir Starmer has accused the Reform UK candidate in the Greater Manchester byelection of pursuing the politics of “toxic division” after he refused to disown his claim that UK-born people from minority ethnic backgrounds are not necessarily British.
The prime minister suggested that Matthew Goodwin, a hard-right activist, would try to “tear people apart” in Gorton and Denton, and that voters wanting to stop Nigel Farage’s party should coalesce around the Labour candidate.
Senior Labour figures have warned that the party needs to rapidly present itself as the “stop Reform” vote, acknowledging that in the recent Caerphilly byelection, which was won by Plaid Cymru, they were too late in becoming the beneficiary of tactical voting.
The Greens, who came third in the Gorton and Denton seat at the general election, are set to stage an all-out fight to win the upcoming race, with officials in the party arguing they have a real chance of victory after Andy Burnham was barred from applying to be the Labour candidate.
