Reform by-election candidate described Nigel Farage’s economic plans as ‘utterly toxic combination’

Exclusive: It comes after The Independent revealed that Matt Goodwin called for ‘young girls’ to be given ‘biological reality’ check

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

Matt Goodwin said that he “cannot 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.”

Reform UK leader Nigel Farage with his party’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election Matt Goodwin (front right) (Danny Lawson/PA Wire)

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”.

This publication also revealed that he had previously suggested people who don’t have children should be taxed extra as punishment and warned that “many women in Britain are having children much too late in life”.

The polling cited by Mr Goodwin, who is standing for Reform UK in the Gorton and Denton by-election at the end of this month, also showed more than 50 per cent of the public wanted taxes and spending to increase, while 40 per cent wanted them to remain the same.

A Reform UK supporter holding a placard at the party’s Gorton and Denton by-election headquarters (PA Wire)

In a speech last year, Mr Farage said “substantial tax cuts” were not realistic at the current moment “given the dire state” of the country’s finances but said that his party would raise the threshold at which workers start to pay tax and scrap Labour’s ‘family farm’ inheritance tax changes.

However, he rowed back from his party’s 2024 election promise to cut £90bn of taxes, which leading economic think tank the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said Reform had failed to set out how they would achieve.

Last month Mr Farage also told an event in Davos that he thought “the one big lesson of the Liz Truss-Kwasi Kwarteng Budget is that they did not propose to cut spending. So for our programme to work, what we absolutely have to tell people that we are going to reduce welfare spending, we are going to reduce excessive government spending.”

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Matt Goodwin’s comments show that it’s not just Labour saying Reform’s economic plans are ludicrous – their own candidate thinks so too.

“Reform UK offers nothing but a return to austerity, enacted by a party stuffed full of the same Tories that broke our public services in the first place.”

A Reform spokesperson told The Independent: “Labour’s campaign in Gorton and Denton truly must be on the ropes if they have had to resort to polling analysis by Matt from three years ago when the economy was in a much different place.

“We will take no lectures from a party under whose watch the economy has tanked. By voting Reform the voters of Gorton and Denton can get Keir Starmer out and help bring an end to this failed Labour government.”