A disgruntled Tory candidate has thrown shade at Rishi Sunak by including two photos of Nigel Farage in her election leaflets.
Dame Andrea Jenkyns has sparked anger after two pictures of her grinning alongside the Reform UK leader featured in her promotional material. The candidate, one of the PM’s fiercest Tory critics, has doubled down on the decision, despite complaints that her leaflet is misleading. It doesn’t feature any images of her with Rishi Sunak.
Voters in the Leeds South West and Morley constituency received the glossy A4 flyer as she bids to remain in Parliament. Dame Andrea was previously MP for Morley and Outwood, which was wiped out in boundary changes.
In November last year she became the first Tory MP to publicly reveal she’d submitted a letter of no confidence in the PM. She had been widely tipped to defect, but ruled out doing so – saying she wants to help the Conservatives rebuild after the election.
It raises questions over Mr Sunak’s authority over warring factions, at time when Reform UK is just one percentage point behind the Conservatives according to a YouGov poll. In a dig at the PM she said it was “regrettable” that party leaders haven’t done enough to “stop a socialist supermajority”.
(
/ SWNS)
(
Getty Images)
A spokesperson for Dame Andrea said: “Andrea is above all, a patriot. She fought for Brexit alongside politicians from all parties including Labour and Reform and is proud of being able to transcend party politics and put the country first.
“She finds it regrettable that party leaders have not been able to see the bigger picture in uniting the right to stop a socialist supermajority. After the election, Conservative MPs will need to work with a wider conservative movement to achieve their goals and Andrea is one of the best-placed genuine conservatives in her party to help facilitate this.
“For the avoidance of any doubt, Andrea is a lifelong conservative and is standing for the Conservative Party in the forthcoming election. She is committed to promoting low-tax, common-sense conservatism.”
Her Reform UK rival, James Kendall, said he was furious after seeing the leaflets. He said: “I think it’s disgusting that Andrea has used that and not put on the leaflet that it’s [from the] Conservative party. I think it’s misleading.
“I think it’s disgusting to hide behind Nigel Farage to get the Reform voters to believe that she is for Reform. Andrea Jenkyns had the opportunity six months ago to join Reform UK and personally, I’ve always been stood in the background wondering when she was going to stand for Reform.
“I’ve had many an email off people and Whatsapps, because I’m quite close to a lot of people in the constituency, and they’re all quite disgusted, and a lot of people in the constituency have said they’re going to report it to the electoral commission. They are not happy about it, they just feel they are being misled. A lot of these people were Andrea Jenkyns’s supporters.”
The glossy A4 election leaflet features a picture of Ms Jenkyns alongside the slogan ‘your outspoken Yorkshire voice with a proven track record.”
Dame Andrea ousted Labour’s Ed Balls in 2015, and held her previous seat – which was wiped out by boundary changes – with a majority of 9,000. She has already sparked anger by accepting a donation of £5,000 from the donor behind Laurence Fox’s Reclaim party.
She was one of four candidates – including Brendan Clarke-Smith, Karl McCartney and Marco Longhi – who received a cash injection from Reclaim. Mr Fox said the quartet had agreed to uphold four “commitments”.
These include pulling the UK out of the European Court of Human Rights, repealing the Human Rights Act, banning gender reassignment for children and reforming the Equality Act.
Dame Andrea said last week: “While (Reform UK) have a scorched earth policy and are trying to destroy true conservatism, Reclaim are taking a grown up approach. They realise it is important that as true common sense conservatives we unite and take the fight to the Labour Party and we try to stop the dangerous Starmer and Rayner government.”