Reform’s Andrea Jenkyns mocked over ’embarrassing’ entrance to Lincolnshire business event on an automated bus

Reform’s Dame Andrea Jenkyns has been accused of “embarrassing” Greater Lincolnshire after turning up at a business event on an automated bus wearing a spacesuit.

Jenkyns arrived at The Great Exhibition of Lincolnshire, a business and innovation event which she set up, on an automated bus filled with smoke, wearing a spacesuit and holding a helmet. 

There were also speaking and dancing robots at the event. 

The Lincoln and District Trades Union Council has called on Jenkyns to disclose how much the event cost.

The 2025 event cost approximately £69,000, with £28,000 of private and in-kind sponsorship.

Prior to the event, the exhibition had been accused of lacking political balance, with Liz Truss, Zia Yusuf and Robert Jenrick MP listed as speakers. 

A Texan Republican state representative and a former representative also spoke at the event.

Reacting to Jenkyns’ entrance at the event, one social media user wrote on X: “I’m sick and tired of Andrea Jenkyns embarrassing our county in front of the nation. When she’s not playing dress-up, she’s subjecting us to her unsolicited warbling. 

“Lincolnshire isn’t a joke and deserves better than an attention seeker who doesn’t even want to live here.”

Jenkyns’s eligibility to stand as the Reform candidate for Greater Lincolnshire mayor came under questioning last year, when a member of the Independent candidate Marianne Overton’s team highlighted that she was living in Yorkshire.

During the mayoral election campaign, Jenkyns promised to sell her house in Yorkshire and move to Lincolnshire if she was elected mayor.

An investigation by LFF in July found that Jenkyns’ house in Yorkshire, which was previously up for sale on Rightmove had been removed from the website and was listed for rent as a holiday home. 

LFF also spoke to local sources who said they do not believe she has relocated to Lincolnshire. 

At yesterday’s Great Exhibition event, Jenkyns also used an interview with an ITV journalist to advocate for fracking in Lincolnshire.

Jenkyns said that she thinks “the dial is changing on fracking” and that “all these lobby groups trying to make out it’s bad but how come America’s doing it, how come other countries are doing it and it’s perfectly safe?”.

An article by the Guardian from earlier this year revealed that Jenkyns had met with US-based company Edgon Resources four times to discuss how the firm could frack for gas in the county.

Fracking was banned in England under the Conservative government in 2019, when Jenkyns was a Tory MP, because of concerns that it can trigger earthquakes.

Fracking has also been banned by previous governments since 2011.

Photo credit: ITV/ Fred Dimbleby

Olivia Barber is a reporter at Left Foot Forward