Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker has lost his Wycombe seat to Emma Reynolds, who becomes Labour’s first MP in the seat since 1951.
Reynolds garnered 16,035 votes, while Baker took 11,444 and Reform UK’s Richard Phoenix finished third on 4,769.
In her victory speech, Reynolds thanked her family, her campaign team and the electorate, as well as Baker for his ‘14 years of service to the people of Wycombe’.
The new Labour MP, who lives in Holmer Green, received huge cheers from party activists inside Stoke Mandeville Stadium in Aylesbury where the votes were counted.
Reynolds, who previously served as the MP for Wolverhampton North East, told those in the room that she was aware some of them may not have voted for Labour before.
She said: “[To] those that have voted Labour for decades and those who have come over to Labour at this election, it is great honour and privilege to be your MP.
“My pledge to you, to all who voted for me, but also to all of those who voted for other parties, is to work tirelessly on your behalf.”
After her speech, Reynolds made a number of pledges during an interview with the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS).
She said: “I hope to bring positive change to Wycombe, to push for more investment in our hospital, to make sure people can see their GP and to push for improvements in education and in our schools.”
Reynolds then added that she would go home and eat breakfast with her family and have a ‘little sleep’.
Baker told the LDRS that he was concerned about the incoming Labour government after Keir Starmer’s party won a landslide majority in this election.
He said: “I feel very sad for our country because Labour are going to do a terrible job. If I thought otherwise, obviously I’d be in the Labour Party.
“They don’t know how to cope at all with the institutional reform and they certainly don’t know how to sort out the public finances.”
He also paid tribute to his staffers, who he said had a done a ‘fantastic job’ but who would now be made redundant.
The outgoing MP added: “Thank God I’m free. It’s been a long 14 years and I am not sorry to lose.”
Asked what he would do next, Baker said he would ‘go skydiving on Saturday’ and that he was going ‘riding round Scotland with an old friend in September’.
He added: “I’ve got 30 years’ experience, leadership experience in the armed forces, in the private sector, in Parliament and in Government.
“I am former charted aerospace engineer with an MSC in computer science. I think I am going to be able to work something out.”
Toni Brodelle finished fourth in Wycombe with 4,236 votes, followed by Khalil Ahmed (Workers Party of Britain) with 3,344, Catherine Bunting (Green Party) with 2,193, Ajaz Rehman (Independent) with 1,913, Ed Gemmell (Climate Party) with 489 and Mark Smallwood with 214.
