Goodwin said it was “insane” that a man was sent to prison for inciting racial hatred
Reform’s Gorton and Denton by-election candidate Matt Goodwin said it was “insane” that a man was jailed for 18 months for calling for people to burn asylum hotels to the ground.
Goodwin made the comment after the Daily Mail reported in December that Dorset resident Luke Yarwood received an 18-month prison sentence for posting two anti-immigration tweets.
As reported by The Independent, the GB News presenter shared the article, with the caption: “Welcome to the UK. Where you go to prison for 18 months for anti-immigration tweets. This is insane.”
Yarwood was convicted of inciting racial hatred, after he called on people to “gang together, hit the streets and start the slaughter” in a series of anti-Muslim and anti-immigration posts from 21 December 2024 to 29 January 2025.
Yarwood also posted: “Head for the hotels housing them [asylum seekers] and burn them to the ground” and “violence and murder is the only way, start with migrant hotels, the MPs’ homes and take parliament by force”.
This is the kind of individual Goodwin defends – one who explicitly called for “violence and murder” to be inflicted on migrants and MPs, and for Parliament to be taken “by force”.
Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward
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