Launching his campaign as the Reform candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election Matthew Goodwin gave a passionate account of his links to the city. "Manchester made me," he told a hastily-gathered Reform crowd on January 27th, on a podium on the edge of the constituency. "My grandfather worked seven days a week in the steel factory up the road. My grandmother worked for the University of Salford. Both my parents worked for the National Health Service defending the NHS in Manchester ."