Andrea Jenkyns, former Conservative MP, mayfly-like junior education minister and now Reform candidate for mayor of Greater Lincolnshire is making much in her campaign of her opposition to net zero plans.
In particular, she is vocal in opposing solar energy, posting on social media last week: “A solar farm planned in Lincolnshire, the equivalent size of 1,360 football pitches, all to reach Milliband’s crazy Net Zero. If like me you wouldn’t want this blighting the countryside, ensure your voice is heard. Ready to join the campaign to stop this.”
Part of Jenkyns’ campaign, however, has involved busily scrubbing her various social media platforms free of the blight of posts showing her previous enthusiasm for such projects. She has recently deleted posts showing her welcoming the installation of 3,000 solar panels at Wakefield’s White Rose Centre “providing sustainable energy that can power 200 homes for 12 months”, as well as an expanded renewable energy initiative at Coca-Cola’s local plant, Europe’s largest. An X post directing followers to a question Jenkyns asked in the Commons about business rates for firms using solar panels in 2016 has also mysteriously vanished.
Alas for Jenkyns, actual physical tributes to her previous position are a tad more difficult to remove. A plaque still adorns Coca-Cola’s plant, reading: “This solar panel represents the 16,120 solar panels that provide solar electricity directly to Wakefield Manufacturing Site. Opened by Andrea Jenkyns MP, 8 September 2017.”
Meanwhile, “Labour are going to plaster the countryside with homes… our infrastructure simply cannot cope” fumed Reform MP Rupert Lowe on X last year.
Presumably, Rupert The Bore will want a stern word with the Cotswolds landowner who has been trying to convert five derelict barns in Andoversford, near Cheltenham, into executive homes that could fetch over £1m apiece. Local planning inspectors ruled against the development, and an appeal was dismissed at the end of January because the land is in an area of outstanding natural beauty.
Who is the man trying to plaster the countryside with homes? None other than Rupert Lowe!
