Andrea Jenkyns: First Reform UK mayor has knack for bouncing again

Dame Andrea Jenkyns has been elected because the mayor of Larger Lincolnshire, giving the celebration she represents, Reform UK, its strongest workplace so far.

In her victory speech, she declared it was a “new daybreak in British politics” and vowed Reform would “reset Britain to its superb previous”.

She beat the Conservative candidate by greater than 40,000 votes, which is able to really feel like like a private vindication for the previous Tory MP.

However she confirmed she had misplaced none of her expertise for producing controversy when she walked out on a Sky Information interview after being requested about her view that unlawful migrants ought to be “put in tents” and criticisms of her Tory opponent’s South African accent.

A former Greggs employee and Miss UK finalist, Dame Andrea will now management an annual finances of £24m and maintain powers over abilities, transport and financial growth within the area.

The consequence marks a exceptional political comeback for an MP voted out lower than a yr in the past within the basic election.

However as Dame Andrea’s meandering political profession exhibits, she has kind for bouncing again from crushing disappointments with attention-grabbing election wins.

It began in 2009, when she gained a seat on Lincolnshire County Council, narrowly defeating the far-right British Nationwide Occasion’s candidate.

The consequence didn’t stand for lengthy although. She was pressured to resign after it emerged her part-time job as a music tutor for a council-run music service made her ineligible to run as a candidate.

A by-election was held and Jenkyns squeaked house by 16 votes, once more forward of the BNP.

4 years on, she misplaced her council seat to UKIP, a Eurosceptic celebration based by Nigel Farage – Reform UK’s chief and, mockingly, now Dame Andrea’s boss.

Two years handed earlier than her subsequent comeback in 2015, when she burst onto the nationwide scene with one of many greatest shocks of the final election that yr.

She ousted shadow chancellor Ed Balls, successful the Morley and Outwood constituency by 422 votes and knocking a brick out of Labour’s purple wall.

Jenkyns – who labored at a Greggs bakery after leaving college at 16 – stated she was “misplaced for phrases”.

In her marketing campaign, she offered herself as a “sturdy Yorkshire lass” from humble beginnings.

Born in Humberside in 1974, Jenkyns went straight right into a job after ending college, working her means up from a Saturday store assistant to senior administration.

An beginner opera singer and a vocal coach, she additionally labored as a music tutor in secondary faculties.

When she hit her 30s, she determined to retrain and accomplished a diploma in economics from the Open College earlier than graduating from the College of Lincoln aged 40 after learning worldwide relations and politics.

Her father was a lorry driver along with his personal haulage enterprise.

He pushed her in direction of the limelight at an early age, coming into her within the Miss UK magnificence contest.

“My dad despatched my picture off with out telling me and I ended up moving into the ultimate,” she informed the Categorical newspaper.

“It was an fascinating second.”

Her father’s dying in 2011 – after he contracted the MRSA an infection in hospital – spurred her to run for Parliament.

As an MP, Jenkyns was a passionate Brexit backer and a powerful critic of Theresa Might’s dealing with of the UK’s departure from the EU when she was prime minister.

In a placing intervention at Prime Minister’s Questions, Jenkyns stated Might had “did not ship on her guarantees” and prompt she ought to resign.

As soon as Might had stood apart, Jenkyns discovered favour with Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who appointed her as an assistant authorities whip in 2021 and a junior schooling minister a yr later.

A loyal ally, Jenkyns constantly defended Johnson, together with throughout her look on the BBC’s Have I Acquired Information For You programme, when she described him as “one in every of our higher prime ministers”.

When Johnson resigned in 2022, Jenkyns misplaced her composure exterior Downing Avenue.

She was filmed giving the center finger to protesters shortly earlier than Johnson’s resignation.

A backlash adopted and in her defence, Jenkyns stated she was “solely human” and had acquired “enormous quantities of abuse from a number of the individuals who have been there through the years”.

“I responded and stood up for myself,” she stated.

She was made a dame in Johnson’s resignation honours in 2023.

Jenkyns retained her ministerial function beneath Liz Truss however was later dismissed by the next prime minister, Rishi Sunak.

She then did not win re-election to the successor seat of Leeds South West and Morley on the 2024 basic election.

Again within the political wilderness, Jenkyns started flirting with Reform UK final yr.

Dame Andrea had made clear her sympathies with Nigel Farage’s celebration, urging the Conservatives to unite with it to forestall a Labour “supermajority” on the basic election.

Attending Reform UK’s convention final autumn, Dame Andrea insisted she was “not defecting” however was eager to search out out whether or not Farage’s celebration was “the true house of conservatism”.

Two months later, Jenkyns introduced she was formally becoming a member of Reform UK and would stand because the celebration’s candidate to be mayor of Larger Lincolnshire.

Dame Andrea stated she had “fought to the bitter finish” however the Conservative Occasion was now “past salvage”.

Twelve years on from her defeat to Farage’s former celebration in an area election in Lincolnshire, Jenkyns has delivered a major electoral victory for her former foe.

Again within the county the place all of it started, the brand new mayor has as soon as once more proved her bouncebackability.