Reform’s Goodwin admits ‘AI errors’ in book were due to his own incompetence

Matt Goodwin is an academic, a broadcaster and a failed Reform UK MP. Following his loss in the Gorton & Denton by-election, Goodwin released a book titled Suicide of a Nation. The problem was that this supposed work of non-fiction contained many fictitious quotes and misunderstood statistics, leading many to accuse Goodwin of using AI.

In a move that reassured no one, Goodwin has now blamed the many, many errors in his book on incompetence.

Whoever is telling Matt all this is a good idea. Clearly hates him. It is worse to admit that your very poorly researched book, was in fact, 100% your work. AI is actually quite a good excuse for this mistake ⬇️ https://t.co/V7RJetFndJ pic.twitter.com/tRTxaB15pK

— Albie (@albieamankona) March 30, 2026

Bad to worse for failed Reform candidate

If you’re a political commentator — as Matt Goodwin has been for the past decade — you should know that Boris Johnson was not “in opposition” in 2019. The term ‘in opposition’ refers to political parties who are not in government. In 2019, the Tories had been in government for nine years, with Johnson becoming PM in July that year (later winning a majority in the December election).

Being entirely fair, it’s possible Goodwin could have written “in opposition” by mistake. At the same time, he should have spotted such an obvious mistake by the second draft (or on one of the many subsequent drafts such a book usually requires).

It doesn’t end there either.

They’re not misquotes. They’re fabrications. And I think you’ve spent the last few days desperately searching through Scruton’s work to find something vaguely similar. Only very vaguely, it turns out.

— Matthew Sweet (@DrMatthewSweet) March 30, 2026

In response to this scandal, the statisticians at People Portal UK looked into his academic work:

I have just spent a few minutes scanning Matt Goodwin’s ‘academic’ paper in which he makes ‘scary’ projections of the population in 2100.

It includes this assumption:

“As net non-EU immigration exceeds both emigration and EU immigration in recent years, all net migrants are assumed to originate from non-EU countries.”

This renders his projections meaningless.

A quick search shows “4.0 million (6% of the population) were born in EU countries, while 6.8 million (10% of the population) were born outside the EU.”

This paper was written before ChatGPT went mainstream, supporting Goodwin’s argument that he is actually just a raging moron.

The worms have turned

As the Canary reported, Goodwin’s colleagues at GB News have all turned on him as a result of his rubbish book. In the days since, more and more media types have distanced themselves from ‘MattGPT’ Goodwin, including the News Agents crew.

lol. A few weeks ago, The Spectator published Matt Goodwin's whiny little screed that blamed his trouncing in the Gorton and Denton by-election on the "Islamo-woke Green alliance". Now they're mercilessly dunking on him. It's so over. https://t.co/eNNDCZC8Ay pic.twitter.com/BgGsyVNDEW

— Plutôt la Barbie (@plutotlabarbie) March 30, 2026

Former BBC journalists and broadcasters are admitting that they've been had by Matt Goodwin. pic.twitter.com/6PLCrzJEUL

— Mukhtar (@I_amMukhtar) March 30, 2026

But as commentator Juan Mac noted:

Every Emily Maitlis clip is just her saying “but after decades I realised it was actually his thumb and he hadn’t stolen my nose at all”

The News Agents did actually give Goodwin a chance to defend himself. Guess how that went.

"We're none the wiser as to where he got some of those quotes from!"

Failed Reform candidate Matt Goodwin attempted to defend claims he used ChatGPT to write his new book.

It didn't go well@maitlis | @jonsopel https://t.co/0JDAT0pfDf

— The News Agents (@TheNewsAgents) March 30, 2026

On the Matt

Goodwin is facing ridicule from his enemies (and his colleagues and his friends) but some are standing by him.

Do Reformorons go everywhere with a card reader? pic.twitter.com/YUE5h5OaMd

— Mr Ethical 🚩 (@nw_nicholas) March 30, 2026

As Mr Ethical noted, Goodwin has a card reader in the above, suggesting he’s charging for the signing. If that’s the case, we recommend Goodwin bump his prices up,because his future employment prospects don’t look too rosy.

Featured image via Wikimedia