Latest news with #AndreaJenkyns
Daily Mail
20-07-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Nigel Farage says ministers are 'defrauding' taxpayer out of billions to fund green energy - as he says water firms should be part-nationalised (at a cost of £50billion)
Nigel Farage today accused ministers of 'defrauding' the taxpayer by pouring tens of billions of pounds into green energy. The Reform UK leader used a BBC interview to question why money was being used to underwrite wind and solar schemes 'for literally zero effect' on global CO2 emissions. Mr Farage distanced himself from Reform mayor and ex-Tory MP Dame Andrea Jenkyns, who this week said she did not believe climate change existed. But he said that even if humans were affecting the global weather system it did not justify the spending on green energy or axing high-pollution industries like steel making. Last week Reform's Deputy leader Richard Tice wrote to firms giving them 'formal notice' that the party would axe deals aimed at offering sustainable generators protection against market volatility. Speaking today on Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg, Mr Farage said: 'We have got ourselves stuck in this mindset: we believe man has an influence on changing the climate, I didn't deny that, I think that man does – it is impossible to think that seven or eight billion people can't have some effect. 'But whether that is a reason to transfer manufacturing to other parts of the world, whether that is a reason to have the most expensive energy prices for industry in the world and to make the poor poorer in society, for almost o benefit whatsoever, I doubt it.' However he also faced accusations that Reform's plan to part-nationalise UK water firms would cost taxpayers as much as £50bn. He insisted the proposal to put 50 per cent of firms into public ownership would cost 'a lot less' than the amount estimated by Defra and regulator Ofwat, saying they were 'part of the problem'. But despite repeated questions he could not put a figure on how much Reform's plan would cost, saying it 'depends what deal you do with the private sector investors'. He added: 'We don't know what negotiations we're going to have, but it doesn't need to be a big sum of money if you incentivise private capital to come in and do the job properly.' It came after Environment Secretary Steve Reed again ruled out the possibility of nationalising the water industry, saying it would cost too much and take years during which pollution would get worse. He told Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg: '(Full) nationalisation would cost upwards of £100 billion that we'd have to take away from the National Health Service and schools to give to the owners of the companies that are polluted.' He added: 'If we try to unpick the current model of ownership, it would take years, and during that period, pollution would get worse because the companies wouldn't invest knowing that they were going to be nationalised. 'So instead of me sitting here telling the public that we're going to halve sewage pollution over the next five years, I would instead be sitting here saying we're going to play around with ownership and pollution will get far worse.' Mr Tice wrote to energy companies urging them not to invest in the latest round of green energy contracts, known as Allocation Round 7 (AR7). Mr Tice said he had put the companies on 'formal notice' that their investments were 'politically and commercially unsafe' as a future Reform government would seek to 'strike down all contracts signed under AR7'. But he later told the BBC that Reform would not renege on contracts, only oppose any 'variation'. Reform has made opposition to net zero a major part of its platform since the last election. Earlier in the year Mr Tice pledged to 'wage war' on the policy while Greater Lincolnshire mayor Dame Andrea told Times Radio on Thursday she did not believe climate change was real. In a report published last week, the OBR estimated tackling climate change would cost the Government £30 billion a year, largely in lost income from taxes such as fuel duty. But it also warned that failing to act presented a 'more significant fiscal cost' because of damage caused by climate change.
BBC News
14-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Appeal against Lincolnshire mayor Andrea Jenkyns' eligibility dropped
An appeal has been dropped against Andrea Jenkyns eligibility to stand in the Lincolnshire mayoral Reform UK candidate won the contest in May with a majority of just under 40,000 the campaign a challenge was made by rival candidate Marianne Overton questioning if Jenkyns was registered on the local electoral case had been due to be heard at Lincoln High Court on Monday, however Overton dropped the appeal, saying there were more important issues to focus on. During the campaign a North Kesteven District Council hearing found Jenkyns met the an appeal against that decision was received from the office of Overton, who was standing as an dropped the appeal two weeks to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Jenkyns currently lives in a Yorkshire constituency which she represented as an MP, and is in the process of moving back to Lincolnshire, where she originally began renting a home in North Kesteven last year, enabling her to be added to the electoral register and to be eligible to be BBC has contacted Jenkyns for a to highlights from Lincolnshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Yahoo
30-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Reform UK mayor says Bob Vylan's chants show ‘two-tier justice'
Reform UK mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, Andrea Jenkyns, said that if Bob Vylan aren't arrested over their chants at Glastonbury, it is evidence of a 'two-tiered justice system.' Rapper Bobby Vylan led a crowd in chants of: 'Death, death to the IDF,' during the group's performance on Saturday (28 June). 'If the police don't arrest and treat them the same way as Lucy Connolly and all the other political prisoners, then they should let Lucy Connolly and the other political prisoners out and give them compensation,' Jenkyns told GB News on Monday (30 June). Lucy Connolly, the wife of a former Conservative councillor, was jailed for 31 months for inciting racial hatred online following the Southport attacks. 'Because this is evidence that we've got a two-tiered justice system,' Ms Jenkyns claimed. Police are assessing videos of comments made by Bob Vylan at Glastonbury to decide whether any offences may have been committed.
The Independent
30-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Reform UK mayor says Bob Vylan's chants show ‘two-tier justice'
Reform UK mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, Andrea Jenkyns, said that if Bob Vylan aren't arrested over their chants at Glastonbury, it is evidence of a 'two-tiered justice system.' Rapper Bobby Vylan led a crowd in chants of: 'Death, death to the IDF,' during the group's performance on Saturday (28 June). 'If the police don't arrest and treat them the same way as Lucy Connolly and all the other political prisoners, then they should let Lucy Connolly and the other political prisoners out and give them compensation,' Jenkyns told GB News on Monday (30 June). Lucy Connolly, the wife of a former Conservative councillor, was jailed for 31 months for inciting racial hatred online following the Southport attacks. 'Because this is evidence that we've got a two-tiered justice system,' Ms Jenkyns claimed. Police are assessing videos of comments made by Bob Vylan at Glastonbury to decide whether any offences may have been committed.
Yahoo
11-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Dear Tim Davie, here are 10 easy ways to get Reform voters to watch the BBC
Yikes! Panic stations at Broadcasting House as it occurs to the BBC high-ups that those ghastly, knuckle-dragging Farage fans might be more popular than in their worst nightmares. So sealed off from mainstream opinion is the BBC Bubble that, until now, the rise of Reform UK has been dismissed as some kind of unfortunate smell which can safely be dispersed if presenters just keep treating Reform spokespeople as if they are enemy spies brought in for interrogation, not democratically elected men and women who speak for millions. The corporation's lofty condescension to those uppity plebs was summed up by a BBC Politics tweet which described the newly-elected Reform UK Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire, Dame Andrea Jenkyns, as 'the former Greggs worker and Miss UK finalist'. Never mind that she'd also been a Conservative MP and minister. Mind you, give me a Greggs worker and beauty queen over the coldly supercilious Naga Munchetty any day. BBC staff are quick to complain about 'misogyny' unless the target is someone they consider to be 'far-Right' and almost certainly Brexity (Eeuw!) in which case all feminist sensitivities are off. That snobbish, snide remark about the force that is Dame Andrea provoked a huge backlash, quite rightly, and the BBC hastily removed the tweet saying, 'We acknowledge the tone of the post was wrong, and it has been taken down'. Still, they had revealed their true colours – Rayner Red and Lib Dem Yellow – and they weren't pretty. Now – oh, joy! – we are told the BBC is holding talks about how to win over Reform-voting viewers amid fears their views are 'under-represented by the broadcaster'. You don't say! I reckon many Reform supporters have already cancelled their licence fees in disgust. Still, to appeal to any that remain, senior executives including director-general Tim Davie and chair Samir Shah are said to have discussed plans to overhaul the BBC's news and drama output to tackle 'low-trust issues' among Reform voters. Deborah Turness, BBC News boss, apparently briefed the broadcaster's board on how to ensure the views of Reformers were being given enough airtime. The BBC is understood to be keen to ensure it represents all audiences and their concerns, suggesting the broadcaster may seek to boost its coverage of issues such as immigration. Well, that's a first. I can count on the fingers of one hand the occasions when the BBC has suggested that immigration is anything other than an unmitigated joy or treated anyone arguing to cut numbers as anything other than some racist pariah. I still remember the pained wince of Laura Kuenssberg when Kemi Badenoch confirmed that she did indeed believe that not all cultures are equally valid – 'cultures that believe in child marriage?' quipped the Tory leader devastatingly. A number of key BBC presenters may need to be sedated before being required to challenge their own faith in open borders and slavish loyalty to the EU. Why, you might ask, has it taken the prospect (um, threat) of a Reform government to make our supposedly national broadcaster feel it has to make sure that all viewers' experiences and backgrounds are portrayed on screen? Well, while Reform has not said it would scrap the BBC licence fee, it believes it is 'not sustainable' in its current form. Playing nice with a future prime minister Farage may stick in the craw, but the Beeb don't have much choice but to swallow hard. If the BBC is serious, here are my top 10 tips for Reform-friendly programming: In anything. Literally anything and everything. Call The Midwife, Springwatch, sewing contests, anchoring News at Ten, chairing Question Time. Clarkson's Farm on Amazon Prime is rightly adored for its host's no-nonsense style and contempt for fashionable pieties. Peak Reform! Best of all for attracting Nigel fans, restore Top Gear with the original, irrepressible cast of petrolheads. Clarkson once said the most British saying of all was, 'Oh, for God's sake.' He speaks directly to Reform voters. No need to sack Gary Lineker (a Reform imperative if Mr Gaza hadn't already stepped down!), but the BBC could help restore national pride and joy by buying the rights to broadcast all England Test matches. Many Reform voters are older and may struggle to afford a Sky subscription just to watch the game they love. The national broadcaster should be broadcasting our nation's sports. After the woke ratings disaster of Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor Who, this cult show is on death row. Former doctor's companion Billie Piper is rumoured to be lined up to be the second female Doctor. A better idea would be to cast Piper's former husband Laurence Fox. As well as possessing the ideal hectic energy, dancing wit and sonorous delivery for the role, Fox was cancelled and lost his acting career after appearing on Question Time, where he said that Britain was not racist. It was, he insisted, the warmest, most welcoming and tolerant country on Earth. A belief which is pretty much universally shared by Reform voters. Uncancelling Fox would be proof of the BBC's new openness to views it finds uncomfortable as well as giving that endangered acting species – the posh white male – a role he would undoubtedly make his own. While you're at it, drop the relentless diversity casting of BBC drama. It's patronising and silly. This may come as a shock, but there are actually some police officers in the UK who are not married to a spouse from an ethnic minority – not that you'd know it from watching every single thriller or police procedural. Viewers – both Reform voters and others – would occasionally like to see the country they live in accurately represented, not as it is viewed by a producer who lives in on-trend east London. BBC News bulletins to feature subjects discussed down the pub not by non-binary Marxist postgraduates called Umberto in Broadcasting House, e.g. our energy bills are horrendous and net zero is clearly madness. Maybe occasionally suggest that it's 'green taxes' not the 'war in Ukraine' which is giving Britain the highest energy bills in the developed world. It's what Reform voters believe after all. Every time a journalist uses the term 'far-Right' they must also use 'far-Left' (which, mysteriously, we never hear on the BBC). ie the 'far-Left' Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner. To be stated every time the war with Israel is mentioned, and no equivocation. An ambitious new factual history series which travels back into our nation's past and discovers, astonishingly, that Britons weren't always the biggest bastards imaginable. Headliners, the just-cancelled GB News late-night comic news review show, to go out at 11pm on BBC Two. An unfamiliar, Right-wingish slant on current events. Reform voters will love. Do please tell me your suggestions for a Reform-friendly BBC in the comments below. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
