Reform UK have narrowly avoided a local election crisis after one of the party’s most high profile candidates, Dame Andrea Jenkyns, was cleared to run as a mayoral candidate just days before the vote.
A decision by the chief executive of North Kesteven Council on whether Dame Andrea meets residency criteria to run for Greater Lincolnshire mayor had been deferred until after the weekend.
But in a last-minute reprieve issued late on Friday, the council accepted that her address was valid and said the frontrunner could stand.
Reacting to the news, Dame Andrea told The Independent: “From the start this has been a political hit job aimed at smearing my candidacy. I am proud to live in Lincolnshire and it would be the honour of my life to be mayor of the place I grew up in and live in.”
A senior Tory source confirmed to The Independent that the party would put in a legal challenge to petition a re-election and disqualify her.
The mayoralty is being hotly contested between Labour, the Tories and Reform. According to a recent YouGov poll, Dame Andrea is ahead on 40 per cent with the Tory candidate Rob Waltham on 25 per cent and Labour’s Jason Stockwood on 15 per cent.
Postal votes for the election on Thursday 1 May have already been returned and the election could have been thrown into chaos if Dame Andrea had been banned from standing.
The situation also threatened to do serious damage to Nigel Farage and Reform as they try to show that they are a credible party of government in the 2029 general election.
The hearing on Friday in north Lincolnshire was brought as a result of an independent candidate for mayor, Marianne Overton, who is a councillor on North Kesteven District Council.
It was based on the fact that Dame Andrea is living between Lincolnshire and Leeds, where she used to be a Tory MP, for family reasons.
It is understood that she attempted to demonstrate that the home she rents in Lincolnshire is her primary address with bank statements, evidence from her landlord and rent statements.
However, a question mark had remained over whether her name is on the electoral roll in Lincolnshire.
The Electoral Commission website states that mayoral candidates must meet one of four residential qualifications, which include living or working in the local authority area where they wish to stand, or being registered there as an elector.
Prior to the hearing, a spokesperson for Reform said the accusations made against Dame Andrea were “vexatious and politically motivated”, claiming that they were an attempt to smear her just days before the electorate cast their votes.
The spokesperson said: “We understand a vexatious and politically motivated complaint has been made by the relative of a candidate in the same election that Andrea Jenkyns is contesting, in an attempt to deprive the people of Lincolnshire of the chance to vote for Reform UK. We are confident that this complaint will be dismissed.”
The Independent has approached North Kesteven District Council for comment.
