Tuesday Feb 17, 2026

Nick Buckley MBE - Gorton and Denton By-Election: Tackling Crime and Grooming Gangs Locally

Nick Buckley, a candidate in the Gorton and Denton by-election, discusses his motivations for running, including his deep ties to the community and a desire for meaningful change. He addresses the unique nature of by-elections and the challenges he has faced, including online abuse and threats. Buckley critiques the current political landscape, noting Labour's struggle to connect with traditional voters and emphasizing his commitment to local issues like crime and grooming gangs. He announces plans for a local inquiry into grooming gangs and advocates for community safety through engagement with law enforcement.

Connect with Nick...
SUBSTACK substack.com/@nickbuckleymbe
𝕏 x.com/NickBuckleyMBE
GETTR gettr.com/user/nickbuckleymbe

Connect with Hearts of Oak. . .
𝕏 x.com/HeartsofOakUK
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PODCASTS heartsofoak.podbean.com/
SOCIAL MEDIA heartsofoak.org/connect/
SHOP heartsofoak.org/shop/

*Special thanks to Bosch Fawstin for recording our intro/outro on this podcast.

Check out his art theboschfawstinstore.blogspot.com and follow him on 𝕏 x.com/TheBoschFawstin

Partial Transcript:

Transcript

[0:26]

Introduction to Nick Buckley

[0:23]And hello, Heart to Vogue. Thanks so much for joining us once again. And it's great to have a, always good to have a returning guest. And there was a great excuse and reason to have Nick Buckley back with us. And that is because he is a candidate in an upcoming by-election. Nick, thank you for giving us your time today.

[0:40]Well, thank you for the invitation. Always a pleasure to be on your show.

[0:43]Always fun having you on and there's a a lot we've talked to you whenever you've stood as an independent candidate uh you've been involved in reform not with vance uk and we'll get into all of that there is a lot of uh background to get into but maybe i can ask you about why you're standing you're one of 11 candidates standing in this by-election in Gorton and Denton, which will mean nothing to our US viewers, and it's up there in Greater Manchester, up in the northwest of England, and that's the 26th of February, so two weeks from when we are recording,

[1:23]

Reasons for Standing Again

[1:21]a week and a half from when this goes out. But Nick, maybe give us a little bit of why on earth you'd subject yourself once again to the chaos and rigor and scrutiny of being in a by-election.

[1:34]Yeah. I think it's naivety. Like I said, I've stood many times before. I've actually stood twice for a bigger post than this. And I've never before had the amount of abuse I've had compared to this election.

[1:50]You stood for the Merrill candidacy,

[1:52]Didn't you? Yeah, a year and a half ago, King third.

[1:55]You've been a heck of a lot better than Andy Burnham, but anyway.

[1:58]Yeah, we are where we are. But the abuse I've had this time, the trolling through my Twitter, looking for anything taken out of context yesterday i had my first death threat i mean proper proper not jump off a bridge death threat i mean a proper we know you and we're coming to get you, um reform voters who a year and a half ago would not even a year ago would have been big supporters of mine even though i wasn't in the party they still was always like Nick Buckley speak but they've all turned against me you're evil you're a traitor um you're being paid by the Jewish lobby you're being paid by the Muslims you're being paid by the greens all late whatever everyone's got a different excuse about why I'm a traitor and a fifth columnist um it's it's been absolutely crazy so I've never stood in a by-election before and by-elections are different because the whole nation is focused on one election just one seat and a handful of people it's it's crazy it's fun it's exciting it's hard work I'm tired but it's fun, Don't enter the game, then complain about the game.

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