Andrea Jenkyns

Dame Andrea Marie Jenkyns (born 16 June 1974) is a British politician who has been the Mayor for Greater Lincolnshire since May 2025. A member of the Reform UK party, she was previously the Conservative Party Member of Parliament for Morley and Outwood in West Yorkshire, England from 2015 to May 2024.

Jenkyns was first elected as the Member of Parliament for Morley and Outwood at the 2015 general election, defeating Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls. She was an advocate for the Eurosceptic organisation Leave Means Leave and a strong critic of Theresa May's handling of Brexit during her leadership of the Conservative Party. Jenkyns served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Skills from July to October 2022, as part of the governments of Boris Johnson and Liz Truss. She was later dismissed by the following Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak. She failed to win re-election to the successor seat of Leeds South West and Morley at the 2024 general election.

Jenkyns was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2023 in the Resignation Honours List of former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

She left the Conservative Party for Reform UK in November 2024, announcing her candidacy for Reform in the 2025 election for the newly created Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire.

In August 2025, Jenkyns was chosen by Nigel Farage to be part of Reform UK's decision-making board.

Early life and education Jenkyns was born on 16 June 1974 in Beverley, Humberside, and moved to Lincolnshire aged seven. She attended primary school in New Holland and later Matthew Humberstone School in Cleethorpes.

She left school at 16, initially holding a Saturday job at Greggs, before spending around eighteen years in retail and progressing to senior management roles.

As a mature student she completed a diploma with the Open University, followed by a degree in international relations at the University of Lincoln. From July 2015, she sat on the Health Select Committee.

Jenkyns supported Brexit in the 2016 EU membership referendum and was a member of the Exiting the European Union Select Committee from 2016 to 2019. Jenkyns stated that she was willing to vote against the government if it brought forward to the House of Commons the Chequers plan on Brexit.

In the 2017 general election, Jenkyns increased her vote share by 11.8%, though only increased her majority to 2,104 as Labour's vote share also increased. Both were helped by the lack of a UKIP candidate in her constituency.

Jenkyns is a Trustee and the voluntary Regional Representative for the charity MRSA Action UK, having joined following the death of her father from MRSA. In July 2018, after David Davis resigned from the Cabinet, Jenkyns called for the Prime Minister Theresa May to be replaced, saying: "Theresa May's premiership is over." Jenkyns called on May to return to her Lancaster House speech, stating "Prime Ministers keep their jobs when they keep their promises".

She submitted a formal letter to the 1922 Committee requesting a vote of no confidence in Theresa May as leader of the Conservative Party; at that time letters from 48 MPs were required to trigger a vote of no confidence. Following this, Iain Dale put her on his annual Top 100 Most Influential Conservatives of 2018 List.

In May 2019, Jenkyns received media attention for her appearance on the BBC's Politics Live show, as she was unable to name any countries that trade solely with the EU using World Trade Organization (WTO) terms.

Jenkyns has received a number of death threats, largely as a result of her stance on Brexit. In 2018, she received a threatening and sexually explicit email calling for her to be cut with barbed wire and die.

In November 2019, Jenkyns received a campaign donation declared at £2,000 from the Brexit advocate and Leave.EU funder Arron Banks. Banks was barred from membership of the Conservative Party at the time, on the grounds that he had advocated entryism. After the election, she was elected Vice-Chair of the European Research Group, replacing Steve Baker, who became the Chair.

In February 2020, Jenkyns defended her decision to provide a character reference for the court case of a Conservative Party activist who made violent threats to Labour MP Yvette Cooper and was subsequently jailed for nine weeks. The statement described the activist as a "decent and honest person whose heart is in the right place". Jenkyns said that the activist had mental health issues and she wanted his emotional and mental well-being to be taken into consideration as part of the judicial process.

On 17 September 2021, Jenkyns was appointed an Assistant Government Whip in the second cabinet reshuffle of the second Johnson ministry.

In September 2021, Jenkyns was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Chief Whip, a position she held until July 2022.

In July 2022, Jenkyns was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Education. On the way to attending Boris Johnson's resignation speech in Downing Street, Jenkyns was filmed making a "middle finger" gesture at protesters. Jenkyns said she made the gesture after being provoked by a "baying mob", stating she had received "huge amounts of abuse from some of the people who were there over the years". She said she should have shown more composure "but is only human". Her gesture was criticised by teaching representatives and by Conservative MPs Mark Spencer and George Freeman. On 12 July 2022, her portfolio was confirmed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Skills, Further and Higher Education.

Jenkyns endorsed Liz Truss in the July–September 2022 Conservative Party leadership election. She was reappointed a minister by Truss when Truss became prime minister in September 2022, but left her role when Rishi Sunak replaced Truss 49 days later.

Following the November 2023 British cabinet reshuffle, Jenkyns submitted a public letter of no confidence in Sunak.

Post-parliamentary career and mayoralty On 20 September 2024, Jenkyns posted on X from the Reform UK party conference, "I'm a former Tory MP, I'm not defecting. I'm on a press pass and I'm keen to find out what it's all about. Is this the true home of conservatism and why have we lost so many members to the Reform party."

On 28 November 2024, Jenkyns announced at a press conference with Reform leader Nigel Farage that she had left the Conservatives to join the party, and that she would stand as the Reform candidate for the new mayorship of Greater Lincolnshire.

During the election campaign, a formal complaint was lodged with the Electoral Commission that Jenkyns did not meet the residence requirement to be a registered voter in Lincolnshire and that she was therefore ineligible to be a candidate. A hearing was due to be held prior to the 1 May election day. On 25 April, the allegations were dismissed.

Jenkyns stood as the Reform UK candidate in the 2025 Greater Lincolnshire mayoral election and won with 42% of the vote, on a turnout of approximately 30%.

Between 2023 and 2025 Jenkyns was an unpaid director of Net Zero Watch, a campaign group she characterised as "[highlighting] the serious implications of expensive and poorly considered climate change policies on the British Taxpayer". She rejects the scientific consensus on climate change, stating on Times Radio in July 2025, "Do I believe that climate change exists? No". When challenged that this is contrary to evidence, she responded that it "depends what evidence you look at" and that she thinks it is a "money-making racket".

In July 2025, Jenkyns, Reform UK chairman Richard Tice and Reform UK leader of Lincolnshire County Council, Sean Matthews, "declared war" on green energy projects. The three launched a campaign against wind and solar farms and battery storage facilities, with Jenkyns saying that oil and gas were the answer to the UK's energy needs.

In September 2025, Jenkyns asked for her office budget as mayor to be increased by £147,000, saying, "I literally have zero people in my team", and that she had to stay up into the morning answering some emails herself.

In February 2026, documents showed that Jenkyns approached a US oil and gas executive in the hope of bringing fracking to the UK.

Personal life

Jenkins married Conservative MP Jack Lopresti, in St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster on 22 December 2017, two years after it had been reported that she was in a relationship with him while he was still married to his first wife, Lucy. They divorced in 2023.

Jenkyns suffers from fibromyalgia and glossopharyngeal neuralgia, which cause bouts of debilitating pain. She also has ADHD.

She supports keeping the ban on fox hunting. In 2015, her dogs Lady and Godiva won top prize in the Westminster Dog of the Year show.

Jenkyns is also an amateur soprano singer.

Electoral history

Discography

Studio albums +List of studio albumsTitleAlbum detailsIlyis Released: 2006 Format: CD

Honours Jenkyns was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 9 June 2023 as part of the 2022 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours, the honours awarded following the September 2022 resignation of Boris Johnson.