Andrea Jenkyns

Andrea Marie Jenkyns (born 16 June 1974) is a British politician serving as Deputy Chairwoman of the European Research Group (ERG) since 2019. 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. 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

Jenkyns was born in Beverley, Humberside. After leaving school at 16, she worked at Greggs bakery. When she was 18, Jenkyns' father sent her photo off to a beauty pageant and she got into the final for Miss UK. Her employment history has included being a music tutor in a secondary school and an executive with a management training company. 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.

She is a former Lincolnshire County Councillor for Boston North West, having defeated the British National Party in a closely run election winning by only 14 votes. Having won the seat in 2009, she lost it to the UK Independence Party (UKIP) candidate at the following council elections in 2013.

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 proposals 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 Regional Representative (Voluntary) for the charity MRSA Action UK, having joined following the death of her father from the superbug 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 confidence in Theresa May as leader of the Conservative Party; letters from 48 MPs are required to trigger a vote of confidence. Following this, Iain Dale put Andrea Jenkyns on his Top 100 Most Influential Conservatives of 2018 List, that he produces annually.

Jenkyns gained media attention in January 2019 by erroneously stating that Kenya exports flowers to the EU under WTO terms. In May 2019, Jenkyns received further media attention for her appearance on the ''BBC
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