“I think it’s quite poor that today you’ve used immigrants as a scapegoat for every single issue we’ve discussed.”
GB News presenter and Reform activist Matt Goodwin was torn apart on BBC Question Time last night after blaming almost every issue raised during the show on immigration.
Goodwin went on a rant about “open borders” and “illegal migrants” entering the country.
He then selectively highlighted cases of asylum seekers charged with sexual violence or murder.
He added that the narrative is that people who talk about the ethnicity of offenders are “far-right” and “racist”.
An audience member then perfectly dismantled Goodwin’s argument.
The man said: “Matt you talked about narrative and mentioned the families of victims of some horrific crimes, but a few weeks ago in our country a Sikh woman was raped on her way to work by two white men who told her to go back to her country.”
“What would you say to the victim of that family and the motivation behind that attack?,” he asked.
He added: “Do white British people not also commit these violent crimes and is your narrative not that these crimes are only committed by asylum seekers and refugees?”.
Goodwin failed to acknowledge the example, stating: “I’m interested in evidence, the Freedom of Information requests that have been submitted because the government won’t give you this data..”
Host Fiona Bruce cut in: “You’re not actually answering his question. He’s saying what would you say to the family of that woman.”
The GB News presenter continued to claim that the government won’t release data about the ethnicity of perpetrators of crimes.
“Matt, you’re not answering his question,” Bruce repeated.
Goodwin eventually said he’d say: “Exactly the same thing that I would say to the families of the grooming gang victims. It’s horrific and they deserve justice.”
The man in the audience responded: “So why didn’t you bring it up when you brought up all the victims of crimes by asylum seekers? You’ve got a narrative and that is your narrative.”
Another audience member called Goodwin out.
He said: “Just for Matt, I think it’s quite poor that today you’ve used immigrants as a scapegoat for every single issue we’ve discussed.”
The man added: “I don’t think that’s a very good look for Reform, especially considering the racist stereotypes around them.”
Proving the audience member’s point, Goodwin went on to talk about how polling shows that immigration is the number one issue in the country.
On X, people praised the audience members for challenging Goodwin.
One person said: “My goodness Matt Goodwin comes across as an obnoxious hateful one-trick pony. Glad much of the #bbcqt audience saw through his schtick and agree.”
Another wrote: “Matt Goodwin tries to use anecdotes, to tar asylum seekers wholesale. This man points out that a Sikh woman was raped by two WHITE men. If you want to use anecdotes, it won’t reflect well on the majority. Well done to this guy.”
Before the show, the BBC faced criticism over a social media post introducing Goodwin as an “author and academic”, while describing former parliamentary candidate Faiza Shaheen as an “activist and economist”.
Critics pointed out that Goodwin was previously a professor of politics but no longer holds an academic post, while Shaheen is a distinguished policy fellow at the London School of Economics.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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