Wycombe’s latest general election candidate has launched her campaign, pledging to put the ‘truth and kindness’ back into politics.
Recruitment worker Catherine Bunting, 49, will be standing for the Green Party in the constituency on July 4.
Originally from Devon, she has been a Great Missenden parish councillor for Prestwood & Heath End since 2021 and his lived in the area for about 11 years.
The MP hopeful said: “The things I’m really standing for are truth and kindness. I think there is a real lack of truth and kindness in politics.
“Standing for everyone and what they need, not just people who see my viewpoint and creating a cleaner and fairer society.”
Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, she said her main policies were to stop water pollution, improve air quality and tackle social issues in Wycombe.
The candidate has called for the private water companies to be nationalised, improved water infrastructure, and sanctions against Thames Water over its sewage dumping in Buckinghamshire’s waterways.
She added that air quality could be improved by strengthening public transport, so more people use it, in order to decrease carbon emissions.
Asked how she would achieve this, she said: “By working with other parties and other MPs who can see the same needs in their communities.
“It’s not just Wycombe. It is everywhere. This is where the truth and kindness are needed. The very tribalised politics only works for politicians, it doesn’t work for communities.”
Focusing in on Wycombe, Bunting said potholes in the town are increasing air pollution as people take alternative routes to avoid problem stretches of road.
The Green candidate, who drives a Fiat Panda, claimed that public transport would help alleviate this problem, as there would be less cars on the road.
If elected, Bunting would also try to bring a Type 1 A&E department back to Wycombe after the hospital’s emergency facility was moved to Stoke Mandeville in 2006.
Her husband hit his head while playing football last year but after he insisted on going to Wycombe, the couple were turned away due to the hospital not having a proper A&E.
Bunting said: “I was there late at night and of course turned away. I should have just listened to myself, not the concussed man covered in blood.
“It is dreadful. To have a town of that size not have an A&E is absolutely dire. That should have been invested in years ago when it was in such a bad state that A&E was closed.”
The Green candidate also defended her party’s recent decision to abandon its national pledge to achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
She said: “That is evidence-based. I was at conference when that whet through and it was a really difficult conversation.
“The Green Party has been raising the profile of climate change since our inception and the government has not been listening.
“Our evidence shows that with the greatest political will in the world, ‘net zero 2030’ is not achievable, so we predict that with strong political will, we could hit net zero in the UK in the next 10 years.”
Bunting, who has been vegan for eight years, has also started a local ‘community fridge’ and said she wants to tackle food poverty.
She also pointed out that the Green Party has supported a ceasefire in Gaza since the start of the conflict.
In the July 4 general election, Bunting faces Steve Baker (Conservative), Emma Reynolds (Labour), Toni Brodelle (Lib Dems), Khalil Ahmed (Workers Party of Britain), Richard Phoenix (Reform UK), Ed Gemmell (Climate Party) and Ajaz Rehman (Independent).
