Reform's Goodwin berated party's 'toxic' economy plan

The Reform candidate in an upcoming Westminster by-election once described his party’s economic plans as an “utterly toxic combination”.

- KATE DEVLIN

Matt Goodwin, who is standing for Reform UK in the Gorton and Denton by-election at the end of the month, said that he could “not stress enough how unpopular slashing taxes and cutting spending on public services is" in a post on LinkedIn three years ago.

The former academic was pointing to polling from the highly respected British Social Attitudes survey which showed that reducing both was backed by just 6 per cent of the public.

In November, Nigel Farage said his party "will cut spending" and "we want to cut taxes". And last month he doubled down, saying: "We are going to reduce excessive government spending."

Mr Goodwin hit the headlines last week after The Independent revealed he had called for women and young girls to be given a “biological reality” check as he warned of an impending “fertility crisis”.