{"id":422495,"date":"2026-02-12T22:19:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/422495\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T22:19:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T22:19:08","slug":"labour-and-reform-candidates-clash-over-women-feeling-threatened-by-far-right-rhetoric-greater-manchester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/422495\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour and Reform candidates clash over women feeling threatened by far-right rhetoric | Greater Manchester"},"content":{"rendered":"

Labour and Reform candidates came head-to-head at a hustings in Greater Manchester<\/a> for the Gorton and Denton byelection, with Labour\u2019s candidate saying women in the constituency were scared to leave the house because of her rival\u2019s rhetoric.<\/p>\n

Angeliki Stogia<\/a> hit out at Reform\u2019s Matt Goodwin<\/a>, who arrived at the offices of the Manchester Evening News, which was hosting the event, with security.<\/p>\n

Goodwin responded by saying he had had \u201cvery real threats\u201d on his life and suggested women were instead afraid because Labour<\/a> was \u201crunning a policy of open borders, which is putting women and girls at risk\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stogia said: \u201cMatthew, how can you be sat here with a couple of security guys following you around? When I, just this morning, was with a group of interfaith women representing our community, who told me that our women in this constituency, they\u2019re scared to leave their house because of the rhetoric that you have been peddling.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was the fiercest clash at the event which was attended by people living and working in the constituency, including doctors, college students and representatives from community and campaign groups.<\/p>\n

Goodwin said: \u201cI\u2019m not going to be lectured to by a Labour politician from a party that consistently failed to investigate the mass rape and sexual abuse of working-class kids in this country for 30 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the reason I have security is because I have very real threats to my life in an area where people assure me everything is fine, and clearly in some parts of this country integration is not working as it should be.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Goodwin was unveiled as Reform\u2019s candidate at an event with the MP Lee Anderson there was a heavy security presence, and also when Nigel Farage opened the party\u2019s campaign headquarters in Gorton and Denton last week.<\/p>\n

Nigel Farage opening the Reform party\u2019s campaign headquarters with Matt Goodwin in Denton. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

The Green candidate, Hannah Spencer<\/a>, who is vying with Labour and Reform to take the seat, has said she has had to be accompanied by security in the constituency after an incident where a \u201cvery, very angry\u201d man shouted abuse.<\/p>\n

At the hustings, Spencer described her Reform rival as \u201can academic, bussed in from the south, spreading that party\u2019s message of division\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou spent so long Matt, I think, researching far-right extremism that you did get a little bit confused and thought what you were reading was an instruction manual,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In return, Goodwin repeatedly criticised Spencer, saying that the Greens wanted to legalise \u201call drugs, including crack cocaine and heroin\u201d.<\/p>\n

In what should have been an easy question to round off an otherwise cordial event, the candidates were asked to name their favourite Oasis<\/a> song as the Gallagher brothers grew up in Burnage, which forms part of the constituency.<\/p>\n

The Liberal Democrat candidate, Jackie Pearcey, and the Conservative candidate, Charlotte Cadden, both said theirs was Definitely Maybe \u2013 which is actually the name of the band\u2019s debut album, while Spencer said: \u201cI\u2019m not going to pick an Oasis song. I\u2019d go Stone Roses if I\u2019m asked to pick between the two.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stogia said her favourite Oasis song was Supersonic, to which Goodwin replied: \u201cGoodness me, Angeliki, we have something in common, Supersonic is also one of my favourites, so look at the hustings bringing everybody together.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Labour and Reform candidates came head-to-head at a hustings in Greater Manchester for the Gorton and Denton byelection,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422496,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-422495","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-kingdom","8":"tag-gb","9":"tag-great-britain","10":"tag-greatbritain","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom","14":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422495"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422495\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422496"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}