IF Dame Andrea Jenkyns thought politics would be gentler in rural Lincolnshire than the Westminster bearpit, she was mistaken.
This one-time Tory minister, who is favourite to win the county’s mayoralty for rivals Reform UK in Thursday’s poll, says she has been the subject of a “vicious” smear campaign by rivals and former colleagues.
NB PRESS LTDReform UK’s Dame Andrea Jenkyns, an outspoken Brexiteer and former Miss UK finalist, is favourite to win the battle for Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire[/caption]
ReutersDame Andrea, in her days as a Tory, defeated Ed Balls at the 2015 election[/caption]
Jenkyns last year, after defecting to join Nigel Farage at Reform UKAlamy
The outspoken Brexiteer, a former Miss UK finalist, believes a local Tory councillor even insinuated she had slept her way to the top in politics.
Out on the campaign trail near Lincoln, Dame Andrea, 50, who is a single mum, told me: “I think it’s just disgusting, to be honest. You don’t speak about women this way.”
A complaint has also been made — reportedly by a relative of an Independent candidate standing against her — that she has broken electoral rules by not being a resident of Lincolnshire.
The Tory defector insists she rents a property in the county, but she was contacted by police and faces a council hearing today to consider her eligibility.
Her Tory rival in the mayoral race, Rob Waltham, wrote on Facebook: “How to be a good Mayor for Lincolnshire. Rule No1: Live here.”
Dame Andrea — who was made a dame in former Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s resignation honours list — believes a dirty-tricks campaign is being waged against her as Reform surges in popularity.
A YouGov poll this week put the Nigel Farage-led party on 25 per cent nationally — three points ahead of Labour and with the Conservatives trailing a further two percentage points behind in third.
Toxic campaign
With mayoral and local elections taking place in many parts of the UK on Thursday, as well as a by-election in Cheshire constituency Runcorn and Helsby, some believe a Reform Turquoise Wave will swamp Tory and Labour heartlands.
Lincolnshire — which has the heavy industry of Scarborough and old fishing port of Grimsby, as well as pretty rural villages — is seen as something of a political microcosm of Britain.
Politics can be a bloodsport every bit as brutal as the illegal hare-coursing that is drawn to the county for its flat and open arable land.
Dame Andrea said of the mayoral campaign: “It’s been vicious because the other parties can see that if you win here, it’s breaking up that cosy consensus of two-party politics. It paves the way for Nigel to get into Number 10.”
If Lincolnshire is anything to go by, former Tory leadership contender Robert Jenrick’s vow to “unite the Right” by bringing the Tories and Reform together before the next General Election looks doomed.
The spat here burst out into the open on Saturday when Dame Andrea tweeted that Tom Ashton, Tory county councillor for Tattershall Castle, who is now running for re-election, had “spread lies saying I had slept my way through politics.”
Cllr Ashton called the comment “bizarre” and denied saying or implying anything of the sort.
He believes Dame Andrea was referring to a message he posted on a WhatsApp group of East Lindsey Conservatives on November 28, the day that she was confirmed as mayoral candidate.
He described her as “a prize turkey of a candidate who will need to do a screeching reverse-ferret on ten years of ‘Yorkshire lass’ schtick and reidentify as a Yellowbelly [as locals are nicknamed].”
Dame Andrea was a Leeds MP but spent much of her earlier life in Lincolnshire.
Famous for dethroning Labour’s then Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls at the 2015 General Election, she lost her seat last year to Labour’s Mark Sewards but still has a home in Yorkshire.
Meanwhile, Cllr Ashton’s WhatsApp missive claimed Jenkyns’ career “had progressed far with some luck and guile, but little discernible talent”.
He added: “What services she actually rendered to Boris’ government which deserved Dame Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire will forever remain one of the higher mysteries of Boris’ Resignation Honours List.”
People see that she’s trying to treat Lincolnshire as a consolation prize for losing her seat in Leeds.
Rob Waltham,Tory mayoral candidate
It was this final paragraph that seems to have riled Dame Andrea — and after her furious tweet, Cllr Ashton admitted being “somewhat scathing” in his post.
Of her damehood, he said “her own record and achievements in public office fall a long way short of what is usually expected for that kind of award”.
But Cllr Ashton added: “I made no mention of her sleeping with anyone.”
I asked Lincolnshire-born-and-bred Tory mayoral candidate Rob Waltham if the fact Dame Andrea was a Tory defector rankled.
AlamyJenkyns, campaigning with Farage and Richard Tice, has said the Conservative Party has been like ‘Corbynistas on steroids’[/caption]
NB PRESS LTDLocal voter Neville Britton, 80, announced he was backing Reform after becoming disillusioned with the Tories and Labour[/caption]
AlamyThe battleground – historic Lincoln[/caption]
Mr Waltham, 52, the council estate-raised leader of North Lincolnshire Council, said: “Well, a lot of people don’t like disloyalty.” But he added: “It bothers people more that she’s not from here.
“People see that she’s trying to treat Lincolnshire as a consolation prize for losing her seat in Leeds.”
I accompanied her as she leafletted homes in the village of Washingborough, three miles east of Lincoln, and she told me the toxic campaign had taken its toll on her.
She said: “Do you remember the Corbynistas in the 2017 General Election when Jeremy Corbyn was Labour leader, and the Momentum lot?”
“It was a vile campaign but, God, this is worse. This, with the Conservative Party, is sort of Corbynistas on steroids.”
‘Vexatious, politically motivated complaint’
Today Dame Andrea — also an amateur soprano singer and songwriter — faces a North Kesteven District Council hearing over whether she broke eligibility rules for the upcoming mayoral election.
Candidates must live or work in the county, own or rent land or property there, or be on the electoral roll.
But Nigel Farage has rushed to her defence, saying she is living “not full-time but part-time” in Lincolnshire and “commuting back and forth” to care for her disabled child.
He said the challenge lodged against her was about “playing games with electoral law”.
Farage is a bit of a character but he’s honest. I hope he can sort the country out.
Neville Britton, 80, voter
A Reform UK spokesman called it a “vexatious, politically motivated complaint” and said the party are confident it will be dismissed.
The election will go ahead as planned, whatever the hearing’s findings, but if a ruling is made against Dame Andrea it could be used later to challenge the result.
It is a major distraction less than a week before polls open. But her mood was brightened when she knocked on local resident Neville Britton’s front door and he announced he was backing Reform after becoming disillusioned with the Tories and Labour.
The retired school caretaker, 80, told her: “Farage is a bit of a character but he’s honest. I hope he can sort the country out.”
A vehement Net Zero opponent, Dame Andrea has also pledged a Doge-style department, like the Elon Musk-run operation in US President Donald Trump’s administration, to slash “woke” spending.
Yet critics say she will have only two staff if she wins, and not the power to slash council budgets.
In 2015, The Sun revealed she was in a relationship with married Jack Lopresti, a then-Tory MP. The couple married in 2017 and had a son. Last April, Dame Andrea revealed on X that they had divorced.
And last month she spoke of her “shock” on hearing that Lopresti, 55, was now serving in Ukraine with the International Legion’s intelligence division.
As we knocked on doors, the Red Arrows — based in nearby RAF Waddington — wheeled in a cloudless sky.
And a few miles north is RAF Scampton, famed as the HQ of the World War Two Dambusters squadron.
The Tories had planned to turn this into a camp housing 1,500 migrants. But the plan was scrapped by Labour in September, with £60million having been spent since March 2023 on site costs.
Despite its storied history, it will now be sold off to the highest bidder.
Mike Cowton, 75, out shopping in Washingborough, says he backed the Tories for half a century but now supports Reform, believing they are more serious about tackling the cross-Channel people-smuggling trade.
The production editor for motorbike magazines said: “Nobody wants to deal with the issues Reform want to tackle, particularly stopping the boats. Nigel Farage can make a great leader for this country.”
‘Reform’s to lose’
But not everyone agrees. A woman in her seventies said she was sticking with Labour, calling Farage “a nutter”.
And in nearby Bracebridge Heath, former RAF Warrant Officer Keith Finter, 75, was “not impressed” with Dame Andrea. “The country’s a mess,” he said. “We need real leadership and that’s not Reform. I support the Tories.”
Labour’s candidate is Grimsby lad made good Jason Stockwood. The tech millionaire and dad of two co-owns Grimsby Town FC and has started a youth charity there.
Meeting in a Cleethorpes hotel, I ask the first-time politician if he’s perturbed by the toxic mayoral contest. “It’s a sideshow and takes up energy,” the 52-year-old said.
“It creates noise when actually we should be saying, ‘Who’s creating jobs, going to fix the roads, going to look after skills?’ They’re all things a mayor can do.”
So who will win this fractious contest? Bookies Ladbrokes this week had Dame Andrea odds-on favourite, with the Tories on 6-5 and Labour back on 10-1.
Rob Ford, Professor of Political Science at the University of Manchester, said it is “Reform’s to lose”.
Yet, a twist has been mooted by a Labour source. What if the feuding Reform and Tories split the conservative vote so Labour sneaks victory?
Certainly, it will be a weather vane on what happens when two tribes on the right of British politics go to war.
Labour’s candidate is Grimsby-lad-made-good Jason Stockwood. The tech millionaire and dad of two co-owns Grimsby Town FCNB PRESS LTD
NLCTory rival in the mayoral race, Rob Waltham, wrote on Facebook in a jibe at Jenkyns: ‘How to be a good Mayor for Lincolnshire. Rule No1: Live here’[/caption]
NB PRESS LTDExperts have said the Mayoral race in Lincoln is Jenkyns’ to lose with Reform UK the firm favourites[/caption]
NB PRESS LTDThe Sun’s Oliver Harvey on the campaign trail with Jenkyns[/caption] Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
