Andrea Jenkyns: The opera-singing ex-Tory MP's journey from working in Greggs to a radical Reform UK mayor

Independent

02-05-2025

Just a week ago Dame Andrea Jenkyns still did not know whether she would be ruled eligible to stand to be mayor of Greater Lincolnshire.
But now, with the question marks over her residency status still hanging over her, the former Tory MP turned Reform defector is suggestion putting migrants in tents and stopping energy secretary Ed Miliband covering East Anglia's fields with solar panels.
But the events of the last seven days are not unusual for a rightwing politician who has courted controversy in a headstrong political career which has given her opponents plenty of ammunition.
Whether it is flipping the bird at protesters outside Downing Street while going in to mark Boris Johnson's departure as prime minister, or ending Ed Balls ' political career, Dame Andrea has never been far from the drama.
The beauty queen
It all started when 16-year-old Andrea Jenkyns left school in Beverly, Humberside after her GCSEs and got herself a job serving pasties and sausage rolls at Greggs.
At 18 though, her father persuaded her to start competing in beauty pageants and her public career really began on the stage of Miss UK, where she was a finalist.
The desire to perform has never left her, even beyond politics, and many years later as a good soprano she would release her own album and perform live in the UK, Europe and Asia, including for the former prime minister of Pakistan.
Defeating Ed Balls
Her political career could not have begun in a more spectacular fashion in 2015. Having been a county councillor in Boston, Lincolnshire, Dame Andrea was asked to run against former Labour cabinet minister Ed Balls in the Morley and Outwood seat on the edge of Leeds.
Mr Balls clearly thought he had the seat in the bag and instead focussed local campaigning in trying to oust the then Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg in nearby Sheffield.
It came as a shock to everyone when in the early hours of the morning on 7 May 2015, Jenkyns was declared the winner and in effect ended the political career of a man who had been expected to challenge for the Labour leadership.
The hardcore Brexiteer
Once in parliament it became clear that Jenkyns was firmly on the right of the Tory party. She quickly joined the European Research Group of hardcore Brexiteers and became a big cheerleader for Boris Johnson.
After the 2016 EU referendum she pushed for a no-deal Brexit, and in 2018 she became the first person with a government position to quit her job in Theresa May's premiership in protest over trying to compromise with the EU.
Such was her strong support for Brexit that the millionaire Nigel Farage ally Arron Banks gave £2,000 for her 2019 election campaign, in a much-criticised move. Jenkyns was accused of trying to help entryism into the Conservatives.
Flipping the bird
Almost all of her nine-year parliamentary career was spent on the backbenches with little appetite to trust her with a ministerial job.
But as dozens of ministers quit Boris Johnson's government in protest over Partygate lockdown boozing in Downing Street and the Chris Pincher scandal, Dame Andrea was appointed a junior education minister.
She was always a fan of Johnson and on the day he departed as prime minister, she became the image of Tory contempt when she was pictured flipping the bird at protesters on her way into Downing Street to hear his farewell speech.
Mr Johnson was grateful, though, making sure she got her damehood in his resignation honours list.
Finding love in the Commons
While Boris Johnson was her leadership love in politics, Dame Andrea had also found love with one of her colleagues Jack Lopresti who fell for her despite being on the moderate One Nation side of the Tories.
Lopresti left his family for her and they had a son in 2017, marrying in December that year.
But things fell apart quite quickly and in 2024 she announced they had divorced.
Lopresti was last heard of joining the Ukrainian army to help in the war against Russia having also lost his seat in the election last year.
Off and then on with Reform
Jenkyns relationship with Reform has been typically hot and cold. Ahead of the 2024 election she accused Reform of trying to bribe her to defect to them. She then had a bitter feud with party leader Richard Tice after she was deliberately targeted by Reform to lose her Morley and Leeds South West seat which she duly did.
The animosity did not stop her from turning up as a guest at Nigel Farage's 60th birthday party ahead of the election last year in what was seen as a sign that she would eventually switch. She was pictured with Farage and Arron Banks.
Then as a seatless ex-Tory MP, she became Reform's 100,000th member and was declared as the mayoral candidate for Greater Lincolnshire - the county where her political career began as a councillor in Boston.
But even then things were not settled between her and Reform. Dame Andrea's public support for Boris Johnson on X (formerly Twitter) upset party chairman Zia Yusuf who then suddenly started doing interviews on how the ex-Tory PM would never be welcome in Reform.
Victory in Lincolnshire
Dame Andrea's first reaction on winning was to complain about the 'smear campaign' against her by her opponents. Having picked up 42 per cent of the vote, she was more concerned about the questions which had been asked about if she was eligible to stand.
While she was cleared by the returning officer to stand as a candidate there is a possibility that her vague residency qualifications could become the subject of another legal challenge.
Now she has won though and is backed by a likely Reform majority on the county council, the sleepy East Anglian county could become a real testbed for Reform rightwing policies.
Already she is discussing putting illegal migrants in tents. She is also likely to try to stop renewable energy sources be it wind or solar farms being allowed in the county.
More interesting will be the Lincolnshire version of DOGE in slashing costs and cutting services that Mr Farage wants.
Lincolnshire's farmers and fishing communities may be worried about having a vegetarian animal rights activist in charge.
But overall Lincolnshire now will be the real test of whether Reform is a party fit to govern. And Dame Andrea will become the face of that.