Emma Reynolds, Labour’s general election candidate for Wycombe, discusses her stances on the town’s hospital, high street, the situation in Gaza and other topics.

In a new interview ahead of the July 4 vote, the 46-year-old mother-of-two has put forward her main policies.

Reynolds, who grew up in Staffordshire, was elected as MP for Wolverhampton North East three times between 2010 and 2019. She has lived in Holmer Green with her family for three years and works as a managing director at trade association, TheCityUK.

The politician, who previously held roles in the shadow cabinet, said she would focus on Wycombe Hospital if elected next month.

She told the Bucks Free Press: “The NHS is a very big priority for me, making sure we secure more investment in our hospital, so we don’t lose services to other hospitals nearby.

READ MORE: General election 2024: Full list of Bucks candidates

“The tower has only got four or five years left. I have met with the chief executive of the Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust.

“I understand they have put a bid in for some more capital funding for a new building up the hill so that we can transfer the services from the tower into the new building.”

If elected MP, Reynolds said she would support this plan and warned that Wycombe Hospital was at risk of ‘shrinking, not expanding’.

She also criticised some of her election rivals over this issue, saying it was ‘too easy’ for them to make unrealistic promises of trying to ‘build a new hospital’ in Wycombe.

The Labour candidate also responded to the often floated idea of reopening a Type 1 A&E in Wycombe, with the nearest facility of this kind currently located at Aylesbury’s Stoke Mandeville Hospital.

She said: “I don’t think it is going to happen. We would all love to have an A&E here and we get so many complaints about it. But the NHS is moving towards specialisation. I am not going to do a Boris Johnson and promise 40 new hospitals.”

Reynolds also claimed she had met many people who were ‘upset and frustrated’ at not being able to secure an appointment with their GP.

She said: “One elderly chap in Wycombe was almost in tears. We have got to do something about that, and Labour has a plan to make sure that people get to see their GP and that people with more complex conditions get to see the same GP.”

Reynolds also warned that there were ‘huge waiting lists’ for children and said she backed Labour’s plans to recruit 8,500 specially trained staff across Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and NHS talk therapies.

The Labour candidate claimed she was also prioritising the regeneration of Wycombe’s high street and questioned what Buckinghamshire Council was doing about the issue.

She said: “What is the council doing with this £11million they have been given by the government? The town centre is crying out for investment, and they have been sitting on this money.”

The MP hopeful praised the Eden Shopping Centre as a positive aspect of Wycombe but said it had dragged business away from the Cornmarket end of town.

Reynolds also claimed that if elected she would hold Buckinghamshire’s Conservative-run council to account, arguing that it had enjoyed a ‘too cozy’ relationship with the county’s Tory MPs.

The MP hopeful also defended the fact that she is not from Wycombe, pointing out that she uses services in the town and that her Conservative election rival Steve Baker is from Cornwall.

She said: “I have been very open about that. I am not going to spin people a yarn about living in the centre of High Wycombe. I don’t.”

Reynolds also responded to criticism that she has not stood up for Palestinian people during the bombardment of the Gaza Strip by Israel, which began air striking the enclave immediately after the Hamas attacks on October 7.

The Labour candidate was slammed, along with Steve Baker, for not attending a Palestine rally in Wycombe in November.

Even after the event, she stopped short of explicitly condemning Israel’s actions, saying that she had ‘concerns’ about the country’s air strikes on refugee camps and medical facilities.

She said: “Originally the Labour Party line was that the Israeli government had a right to self-defence. But I think they have gone way beyond self-defence. We have been calling for a ceasefire since December.”

The candidate added that ‘far too many’ people had been killed in the conflict, but ‘especially on the Palestinian side’.

More than 35,000 Palestinians and 1,200 Israelis are reported to have been killed.

In the July 4 general election Reynolds faces Steve Baker (Conservative), Toni Brodelle (Liberal Democrats), Catherine Bunting (Green Party), Khalil Ahmed (Workers Party of Britain), Richard Phoenix (Reform UK), Ed Gemmell (Climate Party), Ajaz Rehman (Independent), Mark Smallwood (Independent associated with Vote Life).

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