Tory MP includes Nigel Farage on leaflet as she warns of ‘socialist supermajority’

The Conservative Party is having quite a hard time knowing exactly what to make of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, as while party leader and prime minister Rishi Sunak has insisted he is “not really interested in Reform”, former home secretary Suella Braverman has said Farage “should be welcomed” by the Tories and ex-MP Lucy Allan has opted to endorse the Reform UK candidate to succeed her instead of the Conservative.

Now, Dame Andrea Jenkyns – the Boris Johnson supporter most known for giving Downing Street protesters the middle finger back in July 2022 – has been distributing election leaflets in her Leeds South West and Morley constituency featuring a picture of her with Farage, now the leader of Reform UK.

Not ideal – not least because the Conservative Party’s code of conduct states “every party member must not … be associated with any other registered political party”.

And it isn’t the first time that Jenkyns has affiliated herself with Farage, as The Independentpreviously revealed she had worked with Leave.EU communications director Andy Wigmore to try and make an electoral pact between the Conservatives and Reform UK.

She also appeared at Farage’s 60th birthday party back in April.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, former Reform UK leader Richard Tice responded to a statement from Jenkyns about his party, appearing to suggest she considered defecting at some point.

“You had your chance to defect and you chose to stay with the sinking ship,” he wrote..

After images of the leaflet circulated online on Wednesday, Twitter/X users are now wondering if she’ll have her party membership suspended seeing as she’s legitimately campaigning with an image of a political opponent:

Jenkyns has since taken to Twitter/X herself to defend her leaflet amid the criticism, writing: “Lots of excitement over my leaflet today. All conservatives must be prepared to come together to prevent a socialist supermajority and the end of Britain as we know it. #CountryFirst.”

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