Streeting slams Reform for historic racism revival after by-election candidate’s British identity comments
The Green Party’s historic victory in the Gorton and Denton by-election, a seat held by Labour for decades, has ignited a fierce political row over race, democratic legitimacy, and the power of the Muslim vote. The fallout has seen the Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, accuse the second-placed Reform UK of peddling a “return to age-old racism”.
A seismic by-election result
The by-election, triggered by the resignation of Labour MP Andrew Gwynne, delivered a stunning result. The Green Party’s Hannah Spencer won with 40.7% of the vote, a surge from the 13.2% the party achieved in the 2024 general election. Reform UK’s candidate, Matt Goodwin, came second, while Labour slumped to a devastating third place. This represented a catastrophic 25.4 percentage point drop in Labour’s vote share from the general election just months earlier, where they had held the seat with a majority of over 13,000.
In the wake of the defeat, Nigel Farage, leader of Reform UK, declared the contest a “victory for sectarian voting and cheating”. His claim was rooted in reports from the election observer group Democracy Volunteers, which stated it witnessed “concerningly high levels” of the illegal practice of “family voting”. The group reported seeing it in 68% of the 22 polling stations it monitored, affecting an estimated 12% of voters, and stated this was the highest incidence they had recorded in ten years of observing UK elections. The practice, where two voters confer or direct each other on voting, was made illegal under the Ballot Secrecy Act 2023. Reform UK has reported its claims to the Electoral Commission and the police.
Reform’s response and controversial claims
Following the result, Reform UK has proposed significant electoral reforms. The party says it would ban Commonwealth citizens from voting in UK national elections, with an exception for Irish citizens, and restrict postal voting only to the elderly, disabled, serving armed forces personnel, and those working overseas. Mr Farage asserted that his party would have won the by-election “if only British citizens had voted”.
Reform’s candidate, Matt Goodwin, attributed his defeat to what he called “a dangerous Muslim sectarianism”, claiming the Greens’ victory was powered by a “coalition of Islamists and woke progressives”. Mr Goodwin, who has himself faced criticism and a reported complaint at GB News for past comments, had previously stated that “it takes more than a piece of paper to make somebody ‘British’”, suggesting UK-born people from minority ethnic backgrounds are not automatically British.
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, who wrote to Labour MPs accusing the Greens of embracing a “divisive, sectarian” form of politics and branding their policies “extreme”, appeared to align with some of this criticism. He claimed the party had shown it was “not the harmless environmentalists they pretend to be”.
Streeting’s defence of Muslim voters
At a “Big Iftar” event in Parliament hosted by the all-party parliamentary group on British Muslims, Health Secretary Wes Streeting struck a markedly different tone. He launched a robust defence of Muslim voters and directly confronted Reform UK’s rhetoric. Interpreting Matt Goodwin’s comments, Mr Streeting accused him of “saying that if you don’t look like me, even if you were born here, you can’t really be British”. He condemned this as a “return to age-old racism that I thought we had consigned to the 1970s and 1980s”.
“When Nigel Farage said Reform won the Gorton and Denton by-election among British-born voters, what he was saying was that he won the by-election amongst people who look like him,” Mr Streeting told the audience. He argued there were “attempts to delegitimise” Muslims who had “upheld British values” by voting, suggesting their votes were being presented as counting “less than others”.
Mr Streeting pointed to his own political experience as evidence of the Muslim community’s engaged, independent vote. “One of the reasons I almost lost in Ilford North at the last election was because lots of Muslim people in my own constituency turned out to vote, and not to vote for me,” he said. He retained his seat in the 2024 general election with a dramatically reduced majority of just 528 votes, following a challenge by an independent candidate focused on Labour’s stance on Gaza.
“Perhaps it’s even more important that I and other people who look like me, defend the rights, the voice, the space of Muslims in our country to participate in our democracy on equal terms,” he concluded.
Broader context and leadership speculation
Sir Keir Starmer also addressed the iftar event, telling attendees that Ramadan strengthens “the bonds of community and decency that unite us all”. He characterised the UK as “a community of communities where Muslims are at the forefront of Britain’s story”, and condemned anti-Muslim hatred. He noted that 2024 was the worst year for anti-Muslim hate crime since data collection began, acknowledging challenges faced by British Muslims, particularly in light of the conflict in Gaza.
Mr Streeting’s prominent intervention comes amidst ongoing speculation about a potential Labour leadership bid, as Sir Keir faces devastating approval ratings and questions over his direction. While Mr Streeting has dismissed such briefings as “incredibly stupid” and insists his focus is on being Health Secretary, the speculation persists. He ended his iftar address by quipping, “let me end by winding up all the right people, by saying that this gay bible-bashing Christian wishes all Muslims here and across our country Ramadan Mubarak.”
