{"id":445140,"date":"2026-02-25T17:16:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/445140\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T17:16:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T17:16:08","slug":"the-hard-right-has-high-hopes-in-gorton-and-denton-but-a-grassroots-fightback-is-under-way-manchester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/445140\/","title":{"rendered":"The hard right has high hopes in Gorton and Denton \u2013 but a grassroots fightback is under way | Manchester"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI don\u2019t want to talk about him,\u201d Selina Ullah said, when asked what she thought of Matt Goodwin<\/a>, the GB News presenter running for Reform in the Gorton and Denton parliamentary byelection.<\/p>\n

She would rather talk about the hope she took from the national reaction to the murder of her brother, Ahmed Iqbal Ullah \u2013 and the memorial campaign afterwards \u2013 in the same Greater Manchester<\/a> constituency in 1986.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was revulsion,\u201d she said. \u201cThere was such an outpouring from people from all backgrounds who came and stood by us. [National Union of Mineworkers\u2019] representatives came to demos. An elderly miner from Newcastle gave me a badge and said: \u2018Wear it with pride.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Ahmed, a \u201cbright, popular\u201d boy from a British Bengali family, was 13 when he was stabbed by another 13-year-old, Darren Coulburn, in the playground of his high school in Burnage, the suburb on the southern boundary of the modern-day constituency. A day earlier, Ahmed had intervened as Coulburn bullied another Asian boy. Coulbourn was jailed indefinitely.<\/p>\n

Selina Ullah at home in West Yorkshire. Her brother Ahmed Iqbal Ullah was killed in a racist attack in 1986. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

A public inquiry concluded it was a racist murder. It was a watershed moment for anti-racism in education and community relations.<\/p>\n

Ullah now fears solidarity is being weakened as people become \u201cdesensitised\u201d to \u201cIslamophobic, racist or homophobic comments\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not horrified that somebody can say these things any more,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that means a worse thing can happen. The public\u2019s tolerance level of what is acceptable is changing. And that\u2019s worrying.<\/p>\n

Ahmed Iqbal Ullah. Photograph: Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many people wrote to us [when Ahmed died] in sympathy,\u201d she added. \u201cGiven the rhetoric that\u2019s around now, whether there would be the same reaction today, I can\u2019t say.\u201d<\/p>\n

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Ahmed\u2019s murder \u2013 and there are fears that decades of progress could be undone.<\/p>\n

Gorton and Denton is metropolitan Britain in microcosm. It contains all the social and ethnic communities which have made up Labour\u2019s diverse urban vote.<\/p>\n

Reform aims to split that coalition. Goodwin has argued<\/a> that UK-born people from minority ethnic backgrounds are not necessarily British and that Europe is facing \u201ccivilisational erasure\u201d.<\/p>\n

While there have long been anti-immigration views in Gorton and Denton, as in any constituency, it would not have been characterised as a nationalist stronghold. According to pollsters Electoral Calculus<\/a>, the area \u2013 made up of postindustrial working-class neighbourhoods and multicultural suburbs \u2013 ranks 291 out of 650 seats in a scale of social conservatism, measured by support for tradition, authority and the \u201cdominant culture\u201d.<\/p>\n

But among those who face the real-world impact of majoritarian identity politics, there is little doubt that Goodwin is among public figures who have legitimised and amplified views once thought beyond the pale.<\/p>\n

Graphic.<\/a><\/p>\n

For the first time in years, the hard right is not just knocking at the door of Manchester\u2019s inner city \u2013 it feels as if it has a real chance of getting in.<\/p>\n

The far-right party Advance UK, whose leader, Ben Habib, suggested in a broadcast interview that some people travelling to the UK by boat should be left to drown, is also fielding a candidate \u2013 Nick Buckley, who grew up in the constituency and has courted controversy<\/a> with comments about Black Lives Matter, women and trans people.<\/p>\n

The culturally conservative SDP \u2013 a different entity from the 1980s centrists \u2013 is also fielding a candidate. Their leader, William Clouston, said in February that \u201cmass migration is a form of colonisation\u201d and the UK was being \u201clooted\u201d.<\/p>\n

Goodwin at a hustings at St Peter\u2019s church in Levenshulme. Photograph: Mark Waugh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

As hard-right politicians trade tough talk on migrants, ordinary people are seeing the consequences.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a case of a woman who said a dog was released to chase her children \u2013 because of all this uproar. People are telling us that racism is affecting their mental health,\u201d said Idowu Morafa.<\/p>\n

Morafa runs Across Ummah<\/a>, a community interest company tackling health inequalities and food poverty, providing employability and addiction support, family mediation and counselling to people in Gorton and Denton. Lately, driving around the city wearing a hijab, she has experienced more hostility from other drivers \u2013 stares, gestures and swears.<\/p>\n

Idowu Morafa. Photograph: Chris Osuh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t know my story,\u201d Morafa, who was born in Nigeria, added. \u201cI just shake my head for them. No matter what they do, you need to be like that rose, that beautifies things and has a good scent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Raluca Terry-Enescu, a data analyst who also lives in the constituency, is also feeling the tension. She is a Romanian citizen with settled UK status, and recently challenged \u201cdog-whistle\u201d pro-Reform posts in a Facebook group she suspected had been posted from outside the area.<\/p>\n

Soon afterwards, she said, pictures of her from Facebook, which showed her at an anti-Brexit rally, were doctored to make it look as if she was holding up a banner supporting Reform \u2013 a party she fears will have a \u201cdramatic negative impact on my life\u201d \u2013 and posted online without her consent.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy local community is incredibly supportive,\u201d she said. \u201cBut I\u2019m worried about Reform. They might want me to be denied British citizenship because I\u2019m on maternity [leave] and get child benefit like anyone else. They may want to take away my settled status.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, a grassroots fightback against division is under way. Neighbours in Gorton and Denton took action to empower the community after Andrew Gwynne, the constituency\u2019s former Labour MP, was suspended for insulting constituents in a WhatsApp group, before quitting on health grounds.<\/p>\n

The group that resulted \u2013 Local Voices <\/a>\u2013 decided to organise citizens\u2019 assemblies, community organising training and election hustings, building on everyday concerns.<\/p>\n

Beth Powell, from Local Voices, said: \u201cWe\u2019re at a really challenging moment. And sometimes we feel like we\u2019re on the front foot, creating beautiful, positive energy, having community festivals \u2026 but then, over time, it feels like it\u2019s not enough to just do lovely work, we have to have a say over how power is used in our name.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels like the other team sort of started winning a bit \u2013 you know, this divisive team. And it\u2019s worrying. People talk about: where would I go? What would I do? What if we end up with kind of an ICE situation<\/a> going on?<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s build some hope together that we can change the issues we share, whether it\u2019s the party that you wanted or not that gets elected. It doesn\u2019t take much to realise what unites us \u2013 when we disregard the language coming from divisive places.\u201d<\/p>\n

Matt Goodwin speaking at the hustings at St Peter\u2019s church. Photograph: Mark Waugh\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

Goodwin did not attend the diverse, cordial Local Voices hustings in Gorton in February, pulling out at the last minute claiming to be concerned about \u201cbias\u201d. Local Voices said they had refused many requests for Reform activists from outside the constituency to attend.<\/p>\n

After the hustings, Dr Charles Leyman Kachitsa, a Malawi-born academic who sits on Greater Manchester race equality panel, said he felt hopeful. He said there were more opportunities in Manchester than 25 years ago \u2013 and that he preferred when racism was not hidden.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen people come openly, it\u2019s an opportunity to tackle the issue head on, rather than when people hide behind smiles,\u201d he said. \u201cThe shift towards justice, it\u2019s unstoppable. Whatever government comes, they might delay it a bit \u2013 but it will not stop.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Jeremy Hoad, organiser of Levenshulme Pride, the region\u2019s largest free local Pride event, is concerned about what the climate means for trans people and other minorities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact of the rise of the right wing is one of destabilisation and fear. There\u2019s a reactionary agenda affecting people\u2019s lives every day \u2013 to remove rights, dehumanise and alienate people. That\u2019s very scary. We see what\u2019s been going on in the USA with Trump. There are people funding groups in the UK <\/a>to do the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

At a hustings hosted by Hoad at St Peter\u2019s church in Levenshulme, the suburb described by Labour\u2019s byelection candidate, Angeliki Stogia, as the \u201cradical heart\u201d of the constituency, questions about Gaza and trans rights got the noisiest reactions.<\/p>\n

Amina Lone, a former Labour councillor whose grandfather migrated from Kashmir in the 50s, interjected at the hustings in support of sex-based rights. She said she understood why her neighbours in Gorton might vote for Reform. She also said she had become disillusioned with Labour over two issues close to her heart \u2013 single-sex spaces and Muslim women\u2019s rights.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not an extreme country,\u201d she said. \u201cBut when you\u2019re ignoring people and their concerns, whether it\u2019s about migration, women\u2019s rights, religion, or jobs, then people will say: \u2018Let it burn. Let\u2019s see what we can rebuild from the ashes.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cMy working class neighbours are salt of the earth. They\u2019ve contributed to communities. But some of them will be shy Reform voters who will take the secret to their grave.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maya Sharma. Photograph: Christopher Thomond\/The Guardian<\/p>\n

At Ahmed Iqbal Ullah race relations resource centre, the specialist race and migration library founded in the schoolboy\u2019s memory, there is a determination to continue his legacy. Selina Ullah, who now lives in West Yorkshire, is a trustee. Questions from visitors about why they existed had become more frequent, said its head, Maya Sharma.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are feeling far more emboldened coming into our library and asking us questions like: \u2018What about white histories?\u2019\u201d she added. \u201cOr we\u2019ve had people who come in and say: \u2018Well, it wasn\u2019t a racist murder. It wasn\u2019t racism.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

This article was amended on 25 February 2026 to remove some personal information.<\/p>\n