Reform UK accused of embracing racism over its pick for head of student organisation

Matthew Goodwin, honorary president of Students4Reform, said it ‘takes more than a piece of paper to make somebody ‘British’. Photograph: Adam Vaughan/EPA

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.

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