Andrea Jenkyns MP has been tweeting a thinly disguised warning to the cabinet's hard Brexiteers to "show their steel" (HERE) at Chequers today and reject Theresa May's third way. We expect the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg to be saying this sort of stuff but Jenkyns was only elected in 2015 and recently gave up a junior ministerial post to speak out for a hard Brexit. She is now one of the more rabid Brexiteers.
Ms Jenkyns seems absolutely determined to do everything she can to drive the country over the Brexit cliff. Anything that smacks of common sense is rejected. I had a look at her Wikipedia entry to try and explain where all this anti-EU bile came from.
I paraphrase from it:
She was born in Beverley and after leaving school she went "straight into business", working her way up from being a retail assistant to senior management. When she was 18, her father sent her photo off to a beauty pageant and she got into the final for Miss UK. She later went on to gain a degree in International Relations and Politics from the University of Lincoln and a diploma in Economics from the Open University.
Jenkyns' occupations have included a secondary school music teacher and as an executive with a management training company. As an opera soprano singer performing in Islamabad, she met the Prime Minister of Pakistan and recorded a music video in Asia for her song "The Beach". She has raised funds for charities including Macmillan and Wish upon a Star.
She is a former Lincolnshire County Councillor for Boston North West, having defeated the BNP after she was forced to re-stand in a by-election following an administrative error relating to her existing employment by the County Council. Having won the seat in 2009, she lost to the UKIP candidate at the following council elections in 2013.
She is 44 years old but seems to have done nothing of any note whatsoever. Retail assistant, senior manager, studying for a degree in politics at Lincoln University, secondary school music teacher and an opera singer as well as local councillor.
She defeated Ed Balls in 2015, a man which I never really took to until he appeared on Strictly Come Dancing, but by golly he had a lot more common sense that she has. Come back Ed, all is forgiven.
