Matthew Goodwin ‘still an academic’ despite leaving Kent role

Controversial politics professor Matthew Goodwin has insisted his departure from his role at the University of Kent had nothing to do with his views on the current political unrest sweeping the UK.

The institution has confirmed that the academic took voluntary severance and departed his position in the School of Politics and International Relations on 31 July. He said he retains an honorary title which the university said was “bestowed automatically” to those leaving professorial roles.

Professor Goodwin, an expert on populism who has increasingly become known for his own right-wing views, has amassed a large following on X and Substack and has been posting regularly as violence flared across the country in the days since three young girls were killed in a stabbing in Southport on 29 July.

One recent Substack post entitled “What did you expect?” linked the attack to immigration and said the protests reflected “decades of elite failure”.

Criticising commentators who have labelled the groups responsible for the violence as “far right”, Professor Goodwin alleged on X that there had been a “concerted & most likely coordinated effort by the elite class to inflate ‘far right’ to stigmatise & silence millions of ordinary people who object to mass immigration and its effects”.

“If Britain really is the happy, integrated multicultural country that Labour and liberals tell us it is, then why are mobs of Muslims chanting Allahu Akbar rather than waving the Union Jack?” said another post.

Professor Goodwin has also praised Hungary – a country repeatedly criticised for its interference in universities under the government of right-wing populist Viktor Orbán – for having “no crime”, “no homeless people”, “no riots” and “no unrest”.

Tim Montgomerie, a conservative commentator, called the posts “incendiary” while the business and economics editor of ITV News, Joel Hills, asked “Matt, are you still at the University of Kent? I ask because it’s so hard to imagine a serious academic publishing something like this.”

Speaking to Times Higher Education, Professor Goodwin said that he had taken voluntary severance during the current round of restructuring at Kent and his decision had had “nothing to do” with the unrest.

He said he was “still firmly an academic” and will continue to publish books and research as well as his regular updates on Substack, but after 20 years teaching undergraduate modules “it was the right time” to leave.

“It made sense for me, as someone in their forties who has done a long stint at universities. Bad actors are trying to imply that I have left because of my views on current events. That is very much not the case.”

He said that he “stands by” everything he has said online, and they were not things that would be considered controversial to an average person on the street, adding that he has not said anything that has “come close” to breaching legal limits on free speech.

But in a university setting, Professor Goodwin said, “if you are voicing support for Brexit or criticising mass immigration or expressing conservative views, you are seen as an outlier” because they are views “counter to what you expect to be heard on a university campus”.

Academic freedom, however, meant he was “free to share views without fear of negative consequence” and he could point to dozens of other academics expressing their opinions on the unrest without expecting to be challenged.

A Kent spokesman said: “Matt Goodwin left his role at the university on 31 July. ‘Honorary’ is a time-limited status that is bestowed automatically when an academic leaves our paid employment – those with this status do not have any further academic roles or responsibilities at the university.”

tom.williams@timeshighereducation.com