Reform UK doesn’t have a “woman problem” and can attract more women to the party, Dame Andrea Jenkyns has insisted. The former Tory MP, who defected to Nigel Farage’s party in November, is Reform’s most senior woman.
She will gain a higher profile if she wins the race to become the Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire in May. While she acknowledges the party has struggled to woo female voters, she expects more women to be drawn to the party in the future. Speaking to the Daily Express Dame Andrea said: “I’m a meritocrat and I don’t care if the whole cabinet in government is men or women, as long as they can do the jobs.
“Both Zia [Yusuf, Reform party chairman] and Nigel, we’ve had this conversation.
“They’ve both said to me, they want to attract more women, attract the women’s vote, and hopefully I can help do that.”
The Brexiteer tells me she doesn’t think the party has a “woman problem”, but she does think it needs to talk about more issues that she thinks women are interested in, citing education, special educational needs and mental health.
“I would like to start talking about stuff like education, stuff that I’m passionate about, but I think the most important thing is, we need to get power.
“And I think that there’s not only myself, there’s potentially two or three mayoralties that we could potentially win.
“There’s some councils we can take over, and then next year there’s a Welsh Assembly.
“So I think if we can get power in these areas, we can demonstrate to the public that, you know, we can run things, we can run things efficiently, and we can make things happen.
“These are important, pivotal moments for the party.”
Asked about the matter of violence against women and how the party has handled revelations that one of its own MPs, James McMurdock, was jailed in a youth detention centre as a teenager for assaulting his girlfriend, Dame Andrea reveals she was in an abusive relationship.
But she says Reform has handled a “difficult situation” well.
“I think it was very difficult for Nigel, because this happened, what, 20 odd years ago, or something like that, when he was, what, 19.
“I think, no doubt, if something had happened now, then they would act on it, but how can you act in retrospect, you can’t, can you really.”
Dame Andrea says she has channelled her own experiences into helping victims of domestic abuse.
“Domestic abuse is a thing close to my heart and I’ve helped so many constituents over the years.
“And yeah, one is too much, but I think Nigel is between a rock and a hard place because it happened so long ago.
“And what about restorative justice people learning from the lessons? You know, as long as he’s learned from his lesson.”
Having lost her seat as a Conservative in the 2024 election, Dame Andrea briefly quit politics only to return earlier this year as Reform’s newest recruit.
