Goodwill is a member of the Conservative Party, and contested his first constituency - Redcar - at the 1992 general election, where he finished second, 11,577 votes behind the sitting Labour MP Mo Mowlam.
From 1999 to 2004, he was a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Consumer Policy, and from 2001 to 2004 was a member of the Committee on Women's Rights and Equal Opportunities [REF].