Andrea Jenkyns

Dame Andrea Marie Jenkyns (born 16 June 1974) is a British politician who served as Deputy Chairwoman of the European Research Group (ERG) from 2019 to 2024.

She was first elected as the Conservative Member of Parliament for Morley and Outwood in West Yorkshire at the 2015 general election, defeating Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls, however she failed to win re-election to the successor seat of Leeds South West and Morley at the 2024 general election. She was an advocate for the Eurosceptic organisation Leave Means Leave. She was a strong critic of Theresa May during her leadership of the Conservative Party due to her handling of Brexit. Jenkyns served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Skills from July to October 2022, when she was sacked by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Early life and career
Andrea Jenkyns was born in Beverley, Humberside. After leaving school at 16, she worked at the Greggs bakery. When she was 18, Jenkyns' father sent her photo off to a beauty pageant, and she eventually reached the final of Miss UK. In her late thirties, Jenkyns studied for a degree in Economics from the Open University and for one in International Relations from the University of Lincoln.

Jenkyns is a former member of Lincolnshire County Council for Boston North West.

Parliamentary career
Following an open primary in 2013, Jenkyns was selected to contest the Morley and Outwood parliamentary seat as the Conservative candidate. In the 2015 general election, she was elected with a slim majority of 422 votes, unseating Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer Ed Balls in the process. 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 May 2018, Jenkyns quit her role as a PPS in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in order to focus on fighting for Brexit.

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." She called on the Prime Minister 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.

In 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. Jenkyns has received a number of death threats, largely as a result of her stance on Brexit. In October 2019 she discovered graffiti on the wall of her office calling for her to kill herself. In the summer of 2019, a person was taken to court for threatening to "rip" her face off. In 2018, she received a threatening and sexually explicit email calling for her to be cut with barbed wire and die.

Jenkyns is opposed to Britain's sugary drink tax, arguing instead for "better education, better labelling [and] parental responsibility".

Jenkyns held her seat at the 2019 general election with an increased majority of 11,267. Jenkyns claimed to have experienced a considerable amount of abuse and intimidation during the campaign. 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 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. She was reappointed by Liz Truss, but left her role when Rishi Sunak replaced Truss as Prime Minister fifty days later.

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

Jenkyns lost her seat in parliament in the general election of 4 July 2024, gaining 9,258 votes compared to Labour's Mark Sewards with 17,681.

Personal life


Jenkyns lives in Gildersome, West Yorkshire and London; where she lived with her ex-husband, fellow Conservative MP Jack Lopresti, and their son, who was born in 2017.

She married Lopresti, the MP for Filton and Bradley Stoke in Bristol, 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.

In March 2024, Jenkyns revealed to GB News that she had been targeted with abusive emails, with the most recent threatening her six-year old son. The police have been advising her on improved security and are investigating the source of the anonymous communication.

In April 2024, she announced via Twitter that she and Lopresti had divorced.

Jenkyns suffers from fibromyalgia and glossopharyngeal neuralgia which cause bouts of debilitating pain.

Jenkyns is a vegetarian and supports improvement of animal rights. She also 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.

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.