Matt Goodwin has been selected as the Reform UK candidate in the upcoming Gorton and Denton byelection – a contest he has a very good chance of winning. He quoted Goodwin thus: “I just spent four days in Hungary, a conservative country criticised by elites across the west. In announcing Goodwin’s candidacy, Reform has turned this byelection into a battle about race and belonging. Funnily enough, Galloway’s obnoxiously masculinist, strong-man positioning probably means this party is pitching at the same voters Reform is, for all their differences on Islamophobia. The spectacle might be depressing, but it’s not familiar; the hard right has evolved.