I stood up for myself, says minister who made ‘appalling’ gesture
A NEW education minister has had to defend herself after flipping the middle finger outside Downing Street, insisting she “stood up for herself ” while other Conservative MPs accused her of “appalling conduct”.
Andrea Jenkyns, who was appointed as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education by Boris Johnson on Friday, was filmed appearing to make the lewd gesture on Thursday afternoon as she walked past protesters through the gates.
Large crowds gathered outside No10 on the day of Mr Johnson’s resignation and drowned out parts of his speech with booing and loud music.
The footage of the gesture surfaced on Thursday night and was viewed by millions of people on social media, while a separate clip shows her shouting: “He who laughs last laughs the loudest, wait and see!”
When asked about the incident, Mark Spencer, the leader of the Commons, said he did not “seek to condone that at all” and said Ms Jenkyns “will have to... justify that for herself ”.
“I do understand emotions were running pretty high and they were pretty raw on that day,” he told the BBC.
“But I don’t think that was the right thing to do at all.”
George Freeman, who resigned as a sciences minister this week, tweeted: “Ministers should set the highest standards in office.
“I’m sorry, but this is appalling conduct for a Minister of the Crown.
This is exactly why we need a new Prime Minister, to restore the Ministerial Code and respect for the responsibilities of service in public office.”
Meanwhile, Angela Richardson, the Conservative MP for Guildford, wrote: “As a member of the education select committee, I have a few questions…”
Ms Jenkyns defended herself on Twitter yesterday and said a “baying mob” were “insulting” MPs as she entered Downing Street.
She wrote: “After receiving huge amounts of abuse from some of the people who were there over the years, and I have also had seven death threats in the last four years – two of which have been in recent weeks and are currently being investigated by the police – I had reached the end of my tether.
“I responded and stood up for myself. Just why should anyone have to put up with this sort of treatment?
“I should have shown more composure but [I] am only human.”
A man was arrested in May after a threat concerning Ms Jenkyns was made to security staff at Morley Town Hall in her constituency.
In September 2019, Ms Jenkyns, a staunch eurosceptic, found graffiti on her office wall which read “Andrea, just kill yourself [please]” at the height of an impasse in Parliament over Brexit.
She revealed on Twitter that, in the summer of the same year, a constituent of hers “was at court” after “threatening to rip… (my) face off…
“There should be no double standards towards abuse of MPs or anyone.”
Bridget Phillipson, the shadow education secretary, and David Lammy, the shadow foreign secretary, were among the Labour MPs who criticised her behaviour.
Ms Jenkyns has been the MP for Morley and Outwood in West Yorkshire since winning the seat from Ed Balls, the former Labour shadow chancellor, in 2015.
The 48-year-old remained loyal to Mr Johnson throughout the scandals of the last few months of his premiership, and ahead of last month’s confidence vote
‘I understand emotions were running pretty high. But I don’t think that was the right thing to do at all’
said the PM had been forced to deal with “the greatest challenges of any peacetime leader”.
A member of the Leave Means Leave eurosceptic organisation, she was highly critical of Theresa May’s handling of Brexit and has been a deputy chairman of the European Research Group of Tory backbenchers since 2019.
On Friday night, she said it was an “honour” to accept her new position.