Matt Goodwin’s campaign manager says he ‘wouldn’t touch a Jewish woman’

Last edition, we told you about Reform’s Matt Goodwin and his campaign to win the Gorton and Denton by-election next week. A lot has happened since then, not least a truly remarkable investigation by my colleagues.

We have found that five of Matt Goodwin’s campaign team have made antisemitic or Islamophobic comments. Most alarming is one of Goodwin’s campaign managers, Adam Mitula. “I wouldn’t touch a Jewish woman,” Mitula has posted on X. Elsewhere, he has posted the n-word and engaged in Holocaust revisionism, questioning the number of Jewish dead. Mitula has also said that “60-70%” of trans people are paedophiles.

Matt Goodwin and Adam Mitula, who says he would “never touch a Jewish woman“

Another campaigner called Kelly Cooling has been helping out Goodwin on the doorsteps. Last summer she was an activist with the white nationalist party Britain First. Alanna Vinne is another member of Team Goodwin — she was expelled from the Tory Party for saying mosques had “secret arsenals” and were planning armed insurrection.

There’s also Jacqui Harris, the chair of a local Reform branch, who posted an article saying Israel did 9/11, and Lorenzo More, who said Muslims want to “conquer” the West.

The only thing Matt Goodwin has said in response to this is “I reject all extremism”, but he has not confirmed if these rogue canvassers are still welcome in his party. 

When he launched his campaign, Goodwin promised to stand up for the unheard voters of Gorton and Denton. “You will not be ignored any longer,” he said. Who’s he listening to instead?

And in other news…

🥴 We’re all trying to find the guy who did this

Nottinghamshire, as you may know, has a problem with potholes. Whose fault is it? In a newspaper article, Reform’s MP Lee Anderson blames the previous Tory administration for making the streets of Nottinghamshire look like the surface of the moon. “Our roads got into this state under their watch,” he said in no uncertain terms. Until 2024, Nottinghamshire County Council was led by a Conservative politician named Ben Bradley. The very same Ben Bradley who defected to Reform and is now their head of local government delivery!

💸 Anyone caught dissing the JCB Pothole Pro will be shot

Lee Anderson, Robert Jenrick, and Notts council leader Mick Barton on a trip to visit their paymaster, JCB

Speaking of potholes, in his article Lee Anderson praised a machine called the JCB Pothole Pro. “These are industry-leading bits of kit that can fill a pothole 6 times faster than the usual method,” he said, gushing about his visit to JCB in Staffordshire. “Some other Reform UK-led councils have also started rolling out these new JCB pothole machines to much success.” Loads of senior Reform politicians have spoken about the benefits of the JCB Pothole Pro, including Nigel Farage, Richard Tice, and Zia Yusuf. Why? Could it have anything to do with the £200,000 donation and £8,000 helicopter ride that JCB’s billionaire boss, Lord Bamford, gave to Reform last year? It must have slipped Anderson’s mind!

🤬 Racist and proud

Back in December, a Reform councillor called Stephen Reed gave an unusual speech. In Derbyshire County Council, where he is a cabinet member, he yelled at a member of the public who asked a critical question about Union Jack flags. His rant was extraordinary, and culminated with him shouting: “I’m a racist and I’m proud of it.”

Reed later claimed he was being ironic. How then, should we interpret his repeated interactions on X with the white nationalist Ashlea Simon, co-leader of Britain First? Reed has also either reposted or interacted with Tommy Robinson and the Holocaust denier Peter Imanuelsen, aka Peter Sweden. He also posted that there were “no go zones” in his area, writing on X: “There are numerous estates near me.” If someone tells you who they are, should you believe them?

🧨 Each unhappy council is unhappy in its own way

Bankruptcy, mismanagement, and failure to deliver on the wild promises of DOGE — these are the problems facing Reform-run councils. Perhaps most embarrassing is that a lot of Reform politicians hate each other. Kent and Cornwall have had their own high-profile bust-ups, and now so has Durham. Six councillors have left the party, and Nick Brown, the latest to quit, says anyone “not onboard the Nigel Farage Express” is targeted by the leadership. Reform’s bosses in Durham, which include deputy chief Darren Grimes, apparently “hold members of their own administration in very serious disdain and consequently refuse to engage in any meaningful dialogue, instead choosing to insult and belittle them”. Ouch.