The opera-singing Miss UK finalist turned radical mayor

Reform’s latest success story Andrea Jenkyns has had a career of controversy and drama like few others, says David Maddox

- David Maddox

Just a week ago, Dame Andrea Jenkyns still did not know whether she would be ruled eligible to stand to be mayor of Greater Lincolnshire.

Now, with the question marks over her residency status still hanging over her, the former Tory MP turned Reform defector is suggesting putting migrants in tents and stopping energy secretary Ed Miliband covering East Anglia’s fields with solar panels.

Granted, the events of the last seven days are not unusual for a right-wing politician who has courted controversy in a headstrong political career that has given her opponents plenty of ammunition.

Whether it is flipping the bird at protesters outside Downing Street while going in to mark Boris Johnson’s departure as prime minister, or ending the political career of Ed Balls, Dame Andrea has never been far from the drama.

The beauty queen

It all started when 16-year-old Andrea Jenkyns left school in Beverly, Humberside, after her GCSEs and got herself a job serving pasties and sausage rolls at Greggs.

At 18, though, her father persuaded her to start competing in beauty pageants, and her public career really began on the Miss UK stage, where she was a finalist.

The desire to perform has never left her, even beyond politics. Many years later, as a good soprano, she would release an album and perform live in the UK, Europe and Asia, including for the former prime minister of Pakistan.

Defeating Ed Balls