Head of Reform student wing: 'Not all born in UK are British'

Reform UK has been accused of embracing racism after it picked a former academic who argued that UK-born people from minority ethnic backgrounds are not necessarily British as the head of its new student organisation.

- Peter Walker Senior political correspondent

Matthew Goodwin, a hard right activist and prominent Reform supporter, confirmed on X that he has been made the honorary president of the Students4Reform organisation.

It comes after Goodwin argued, also on X, that being born and brought up in the UK did not mean that people from immigrant backgrounds were always British.

He made the argument in posts the day after a mass stabbing on a train in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire. Anthony Williams, 32, from Peterborough, has been charged with 11 counts of attempted murder and other offences.

After the first reports of the attack Goodwin posted on X that “mass uncontrolled immigration” was to blame. He was subsequently challenged by someome who pointed out that Williams and another black man also arrested - the latter was later released - were born in the UK. Goodwin responded: “So were all of the 7/7 bombers. It takes more than a piece of paper to make somebody ‘British’.”