The leader of Britain’s centre-right Climate Party Ed Gemmell has officially launched his campaign to become the next MP for Wycombe and oust Steve Baker.

The 56-year-old, single father-of-two from Reading is an ex-city lawyer and army officer, who now runs his own marketing business.

For the past 12 years he has lived in Hazlemere, which he represents as both a parish and unitary councillor.

Gemmell’s main policy is for Britain to invest in its own green technologies rather than buy them from China or the US.

“The aim is for Britain to lead the new clean industrial revolution,” he tells the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The councillor says this will ‘provide a massive uplift in our economy and a hue re-industrialisation of our manufacturing base in tomorrow’s tech’.

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Despite his environmentalism, Gemmell is uneasy about the word ‘green’ and draws a clear distinction between his Climate Party and the Green Party, which is also standing a candidate in Wycombe.

He says: “When we say green, not only has it got connotations of Just Stop Oil and Extinction Rebellion, but it has also got those connotations of altruism and ‘we have got to save the world’.”

He adds: “I am not saying I don’t agree with that, but it is hard-headed economic sense that if we want to turn around the decline of Britain over the last 50 or 60 years, we have to have a massive re-industrialisation”

Unlike the Greens, Gemmell brands himself as firmly pro-business, a stance he says is key to tackling climate change.

He is a favourite of right-wing broadcasters TalkTV and GB News, having been interviewed by Nigel Farage again earlier this month.

In the same way Farage’s UK Independence Party – which morphed into the Brexit Party and then Reform UK – campaigned for Britain to leave the EU, Gemmell believes that his one-issue party can put ‘intense pressure’ on the Conservatives and Labour over climate change.

The environmentalist wants Britain’s two main parties to bring forward their commitments to achieve Net Zero emissions of greenhouse gases.

He also points to the recent Rochdale by-election, where George Galloway was elected for the Workers Party of Britain largely on the single issue of Gaza and local businessman Dave Tully finished second as an independent.

“They wiped the floor with the big three parties,” says Gemmel, who has already started campaigning by jogging with a stack of leaflets from door to door.

But does his one-policy party have a vision for how to improve Wycombe?

Yes, he says, explaining that his number one priority if elected would be to secure the return of an A and E department in Wycombe.

He also aims to create a new environmental business hub for the town and wants to find more funding for the Wycombe Museum.

Like Farage – who appeared on I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here! – Gemmell has also spent time in the jungle during a short spell with the British Army in the mid-80s.

After leaving school, the environmentalist was posted out to Belize, Central America as an infantryman in the Queen’s Regiment under the now-defunct Short Service Limited Commission.

Still a teenager, he oversaw a whole platoon, patrolling the jungle while Guatemalan guerilla forces were still crossing in and out of Belize.

“It was mind-blowing,” says Gemmell, “It was also mind-blowing for a 19-year-old having 30 or 40 adults under my command. I am thankful to say that we never encountered the guerillas face to face.”

A date for the next general election has not been set but Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he expects to call one in the second half of 2024.