Reform UK is holding a sold-out “Question Time” fundraiser tomorrow evening at Le Gothique in the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building. The event starts at 7pm, with tickets priced at £25. All proceeds will go toward Reform UK’s local Wandsworth election campaign for the May 7th, 2026 local elections.
The panel format event features Sarah Pochin MP, historian Dr David Starkey, GB News presenter Matt Goodwin, and Mark Littlewood, former director of the Institute of Economic Affairs.
The event has drawn a counter-protest organised by Wandsworth Stand Up To Racism, who will assemble 90 minutes before the start on the main road in front of the venue. According to a posted online, the protest has support from multiple local organisations including Wandsworth NEU Centre, Merrifield Schools of Palestine, Wandsworth Your Party, Balham Mosque & Tooting Islamic Centre, and South London SUTR.
Increased security is expected at the venue given the planned protest.
This marks Reform UK’s second major event at the Royal Victoria Patriotic Building. In September, over 120 people attended the party’s first Wandsworth campaign rally at the same venue, hosted by Councillor Mark Justin, the former Conservative who defected to Reform after being deselected by the Tories.
That event focused heavily on recruiting candidates for the 2026 council elections, with Reform revealing it had 26 candidates for Wandsworth’s 58 council seats. Speakers included Westminster Councillor Laila Cunningham, London Assembly member Alex Wilson, and Reform’s first Welsh councillor Stuart Keyte. The evening raised £1,200 and succeeded in attracting political first-timers, many expressing they had “had enough” of both the Conservatives and Labour. Putney.news provided detailed coverage of both the rally and the atmosphere inside the Victorian hall.
The speakers
The four-person panel features figures who have all courted significant controversy in recent years.
Sarah Pochin MP became Reform UK’s first female MP in May 2025, winning the Runcorn and Helsby by-election by just six votes – the narrowest parliamentary majority in modern British history. The former Conservative councillor and Mayor of Cheshire East had previously been reprimanded in 2018 by the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office for misconduct during her tenure as a magistrate. More recently, in October, she drew widespread criticism and apologised after stating on TalkTV that “it drives me mad when I see adverts full of black people, full of Asian people,” with Health Secretary Wes Streeting calling her remarks “a disgrace.”
Dr David Starkey, a Tudor historian and television presenter, was dropped by his publisher HarperCollins and resigned from his honorary fellowship at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam College in 2020. This followed remarks he made about slavery in a podcast interview, including the statement: “Slavery was not genocide – otherwise there wouldn’t be so many damn blacks in Africa or in Britain, would there?” Former Chancellor Sajid Javid described the comments as racist. Starkey has since operated primarily through his YouTube channel and speaking at conservative conferences.
Matt Goodwin left his position as professor of politics at the University of Kent in July 2024, transitioning to a role as GB News presenter. Previously recognized for academic research on populism and right-wing movements, he co-authored books on UKIP and national populism. His public commentary has shifted markedly in recent years. During the 2024 UK riots following the Southport stabbing, he criticized the “far right” label and praised Hungary under Viktor Orbán, claiming it had “no crime,” “no homeless people,” “no riots” and “no unrest.” His former co-author Robert Ford said by August 2024 he had “ended contact with Goodwin,” stating he had “tried for several years to reason with him.”
Mark Littlewood served as director general of the Institute of Economic Affairs, a free-market think tank, from 2009 to 2023. The IEA promoted economic policies that influenced Liz Truss’s mini-budget. In 2018, an undercover investigation recorded Littlewood telling potential US donors that the IEA was in the “Brexit-influencing game” and could facilitate access to government ministers and civil servants. The Charity Commission subsequently opened a regulatory compliance case into the IEA in 2019 over concerns about political campaigning. Littlewood now serves as director of Popular Conservatism, a faction within the Conservative Party.
Putney.news will be attending to provide coverage.
