Toni Brodelle, the Liberal Democrat general election candidate for Wycombe has set out her main policies and hit out at Steve Baker for holidaying in Greece.

The mother-of-two, 50, is a lifelong Wycombe Wanderers fan and caught the Chairboys’ last match at Loakes Park and their first game at Adams Park.

Born in Bromley, she has lived in Wycombe since being a child and is on the committee for the ton’s Pride celebrations.

She told the Bucks Free Press: “I am pretty much a lifelong Wycombe resident and I want to be a champion of Wycombe.

“Wycombe sometimes gets a bad rap, and I don’t think we have had the most effective representation we could have had.”

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If elected as the next MP for Wycombe, the teacher of 27 years said she would continue her work to make sure there is fairer access to provision, assessment and diagnosis for children with additional needs.

The candidate is also currently working on a community-wide initiative to ‘tackle the climate emergency’, adding that she is a ‘green Liberal Democrat’.

Brodelle is also a member of the House of Lords human rights task group on human rights in the Middle East, specialising in war crimes, especially in relation to Syria and Palestine.

She said: “The crisis on Gaza, I think it is really important that elected representatives are speaking out on that and hold the government to account.

“Whether it is Conservative or Labour, they have been very quiet on this, and I think that is inexcusable.”

The Lib Dem candidate claimed her Conservative election rival Steve Baker had relied on an element of ‘luck’ in winning his four elections since 2010 and that the Tories were funded by ‘billionaire backers’.

She also hit out at him for refusing to cancel his holiday to Greece shortly after the general election was announced.

“It was unthinkable really,” she said, “I think it was a really bad call. He should have cancelled that. You got to be really aware of how your community are going to see that. It is not just about you.

“If you are leading in a community, you have to be there with the community. You lead by example, you don’t just bale. He didn’t really care.”

Brodelle also said she would focus on Wycombe’s ‘crumbling hospital’, which ‘doesn’t meet the needs of local people’ and criticised the closure of the A&E in 2006 and its move to Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury.

“We cannot have the situation where we have an A&E that takes 40 minutes to get to,” she said, “We need something that is functioning appropriately for the size of the community.”

However, Brodelle is not focused on bringing the A&E back to Wycombe, saying that it would be ‘disingenuous’ and ‘dishonest’ to suggest that this is going to happen.

She added that primary care in the NHS also needs improving, so that people who cannot get a GP appointment do not add to the burden of A&E departments.

Brodelle added: “We have got a minor injuries unit, but it is limited. I would look for something that is not just bigger, but is more effectively resourced, better equipped, better staffed.”

Asked where the money would come from for her health plans, Brodelle pointed to the Lib Dems’ election pledge to ‘reverse cuts to the Public Health Grant with £1 billion of investment per year, paid for by a crackdown on tax evasion’.

Brodelle also criticised the Conservative government for presiding over the cost-of-living crisis.

She said: “It is a horrific situation. When you got nurses, teachers and people who are not even the lowest paid workers struggling to feed their families and having to choose whether to heat or eat, there is a crisis there.”

In the July 4 general election, Brodelle faces Steve Baker (Conservative), Emma Reynolds (Labour), Catherine Bunting (Green Party), Khalil Ahmed (Workers Party of Britain), Richard Phoenix (Reform UK), Ed Gemmell (Climate Party) and Ajaz Rehman (Independent).

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