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Watch: Reform mayor Andrea Jenkyns storms out of Sky interview

(Photo by Ian Forsyth/Getty Images)

Andrea Jenkyns may have won the Greater Lincolnshire mayoral election with over 100,000 votes, but it hasn’t all been plain sailing for the Reform candidate this morning. An interview with Sky News turned sour when Jenkyns was probed about previous comments she’d made about a rival’s South African accent after the other mayoral candidate claimed Jenkyns had been parachuted into the electoral race. Slamming her interviewer as ‘divisive’, the new Greater Lincolnshire mayor then refused to entertain any further questions and stormed off from the camera. The post-election sleep deprivation is kicking in…

The interview with Sky News turned sour

Her interviewer quizzed her: ‘You accused one candidate, she said you were parachuted in and you made a comment about her South African accent. What did you mean by that?’

AJ: What I meant is: how can I have been parachuted in when I spent most of my life in a Lincolnshire school?

Sky: Why mention the accent?

AJ: Because the irony of saying someone’s been parachuted in by someone who’s not even from the country… I mean, I went to school, college, university…

Sky: Someone who’s got an accent can’t be from this county?

Jenkyns – who picked up 42 per cent of the vote in the new mayoralty – snapped: ‘I think actually I’m not even going to answer any more of your questions.

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Steerpike
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Steerpike

Steerpike is The Spectator's gossip columnist, serving up the latest tittle tattle from Westminster and beyond. Email tips to steerpike@spectator.co.uk or message @MrSteerpike

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