‘Handmaid’s Tale future’: Reform’s Matt Goodwin sparks outcry with fertility comments | Reform UK
Reform England’s candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election has been accused of wanting a “Handmaid’s Tale future” after YouTube footage emerged of her calling for “young girls and women” to be given a “biological reality” check.
In a clip posted on his personal YouTube channel in November 2024, Matt Goodwin stated that “it is too late for many women in Britain to have children.”
She said: “We also need to explain to young girls and women the biological reality of this crisis. Many women in Britain are having children too late and are choosing to have children much earlier.”
Comments first reported by IndependentIt sparked a furious backlash, with one MP describing it as an “alt-right fantasy” and an equality campaigner calling it “genuinely disturbing”. These statements come just days after the newspaper revealed Goodwin had previously recommended: Those without children should pay extra taxes as punishment.
Sarah Owen, chair of the House of Commons women and equalities committee, said the comments were “deeply offensive” and appeared to blame women for the falling birth rate.
“For anyone with fertility issues who, like me, is struggling with miscarriage after miscarriage, this must be said: [to them] “We have to pay more taxes because we don’t have children, or it’s our fault, which is deeply offensive, just like it is for LGBT+ people or women who can’t afford to have children,” he said. “It’s clear that he doesn’t project this strange idea onto any women in real life.”
Bolsover Labor MP Natalie Fleet, who was taken into care and became pregnant when she was 15, said her pregnancy occurred at a “biologically very good age” and that she had a “physically perfect pregnancy and easy birth”. But he added that he experienced “hell on earth”.
Addressing the former academic on social media, she wrote: “Is this the kind of thing you’d like to see in the future of Handmaid’s Tale?” A reference to the Margaret Atwood novel set in a dystopian future.
Goodwin, who hosts a separate podcast with right-wing author and commentator Jordan Peterson, also appeared to agree with the host’s claim that universities have become hotbeds of “politically correct authoritarianism” because they are full of “childless women.”
In a February 2025 clip, Peterson said there were three predictors of “politically correct authoritarianism”; the first of which was “being a woman”, at which point Goodwin interjected and added: “I was just going to say…”
Peterson added that a “harm-avoidance ethos” is proliferating because universities are being used “not only by women, but this is even worse, by childless women as well, I can go all the way.”
Goodwin responded: “Yes, actually there are a few articles on Jordan, I think you’ve seen Cory Clark. I’ve read a few articles that basically show the feminization of higher education over the last 50 years.”
A Reform spokesman said the two men “discussed peer-reviewed academic studies showing clear psychological differences between men and women, which influenced their views on cancel culture.”
Responding to questions about Goodwin’s proposal that the government “abolish personal income tax for women with two or more children” in 2023, the party said Goodwin was not calling for a higher tax on childless women but that it was time for “an adult, mature debate about how we can encourage people to have more children and support British families”.
Green Party candidate for Gorton and Denton, Hannah Spencer, said women were struggling with the cost of living, caring responsibilities and health inequalities in NHS services. “I wish the reform candidate would spend more time solving problems and less time looking for divisive, easy answers,” he said.
“The idea that we should be telling young girls they have a moral obligation to have children sooner is both dystopian and deeply sexist,” said Penny East, chief executive of the Fawcett Society. […] “It is truly disturbing to suggest that early motherhood is a civic duty.”
Walthamstow MP Stella Creasy wrote on social media: “I miss the days when such a mid-life crisis meant buying a motorbike and leather jacket for men, rather than trying to do that.” [get] “They were chosen to satisfy alt-right fantasies of ensuring women get pregnant as soon as they are fertile and then avoid going to college.”
