Andrea Jenkyns is Waging War on Solar Panels, Net Zero – and Air Fryers

While homes flood and farmland suffers, Reform UK’s mayoral candidate for Lincolnshire is busy picking fights with solar panels, net zero policy – and even free air fryers for pensioners.

Lincolnshire is on the frontline of climate change, with more homes – over 16,000, at serious, long-term flood risk than anywhere else in the UK. Boston and Skegness, home of Reform MP Richard Tice tops England’s flood-risk rankings. But while communities worry about waterlogged fields and rising insurance bills, Andrea Jenkyns is focused on banning solar panels from farmland and attacking councils for giving energy-efficient air fryers to pensioners. 

Lincolnshire at Risk

Lincolnshire is already under pressure from climate change and in need of support. In January 2024, Storm Henk caused extensive flooding with river levels at Torksey Lock reaching record highs. Just months earlier, in October 2023, Storm Babet brought two months’ worth of rainfall in 24 hours, flooding communities across Horncastle, Bardney, Scooter, Langworth and Wainfleet. 

Here’s what the data tells us about just how exposed the county really is: 

• According to a report by the climate data provider XDI Systems, Lincolnshire is the most exposed region to climate change in the UK. 
• An estimated 16,450 properties in Lincolnshire are at high, long-term risk of flooding. 
• Boston and Skegness is deemed the most flood-prone constituency in England, according to AXA’s Climate Risk Index. 

Jenkyns’ Track Record

Rather than pitching her mayoral campaign around practical solutions, Andrea Jenkyns has chosen to align herself with denial, distraction and damaging policies. In 2023, Jenkyns joined the board of Net Zero Watch – the campaign arm of the UK’s leading climate denial group. 

The group has previously called for an end to investment in wind and solar, urged the UK to recommit to fossil fuels and bizarrely branded carbon dioxide as a “benefit to the planet”. 

Jenkyns who is pro-fracking and opposes electric vehicles has had the following to say about Net Zero: : 

• “It’s time we said no to net zero” and called for energy independence (May 2023). 
• Net Zero a “vanity project” (March 2024)
• Net Zero is “economic madness” and the UK is outsourcing Carbon production to China (April 2024)
• The UK should withdraw from the Paris climate agreement (December 2024)
• Net Zero is “a way to tax and control people” (December 2024)

Sewage, Solar Panels – and now Air Fryers

While she attacks solar panels, Jenkyns has stayed silent on the sewage scandal that’s blighting Lincolnshire’s rivers and coastlines. When in government she voted against holding water companies to account after dumping sewage into Lincolnshire’s rivers over 30,000 times in 2023. 

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And now she’s attacking air fryers too.

In the middle of a climate crisis and rising poverty, Jenkyns made time to mock councils for giving out free energy-efficient appliances to pensioners in Lincolnshire. 

In a recent campaign video, Jenkyns attacked North Lincolnshire Council for stepping up to provide energy-efficient appliances like air fryers and slow cookers to thousands of low-income pensioners after the government made changes to the winter fuel allowance, a plan designed to help them reduce their bills and stay healthy, but something Jenkyns dubbed “a dire waste of money”. 

Lincolnshire Deserves Better

Jenkyns says she wants to stand up for farmers and protect rural communities of Lincolnshire, but how does attacking renewable energy help with that? She talks about food security, yet offers no plan to deal with flooded fields. She warns about energy bills, yet wants to scrap the very technologies aimed at bringing those bills down. 

Lincolnshire voters, especially those who feel ignored, overcharged, and left behind – deserve real leadership that focuses on real problems. That means flood prevention, protecting local jobs and helping rural communities to build long-term resilience. Her obsessions with attacking net zero may play with GB News but it’s of no use to the people of Lincolnshire when the next round of flooding hits.