Dame Andrea Jenkyns dismisses Labour’s case for postponing elections as ‘rubbish’
REFORM UK’s Dame Andrea Jenkyns has dismissed the government reasoning for postponing local elections as “rubbish”.
The Mayor of Greater Lincolnshire told the Camilla Tominey Show on GB News: “So it’s a load of rubbish. This is because they fear Reform, but I’m also disappointed that Kemi [Badenoch] hasn’t come out and said that she believes in democracy.
“I’ve got a Conservative-controlled North East Lincolnshire Council. We’ll find out in January whether they decide to cancel it. We’ve also got a Labour-controlled city of Lincoln, so let’s see what they do.
“Let’s see if they’re democrats or they try to subvert democracy for their own skin.”
She also defended comments from Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice about children being over-diagnosed with SEND conditions: “I’ve had lots of conversations with Richard. He apologised for his comments, and he’s very passionate about this. He knows my son, Clifford, very well, who’s neurodiverse, and is fantastic with him.
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“Now, what do I think? I think that the system is not working. I’ll give an example, Camilla. Clifford’s school wanted him to have an autism test and they do that test on Zoom. And literally, then you have a longer consultation with a parent than you do with the child, and then they do a questionnaire with the school.
“I think it needs to be back to face-to-face. I think there needs to be [a child] in the school environment, observing him in the school environment, a child for an assessment, then observing them at home. But how can you observe somebody via zoom when they’re darting about all over the place, playing?
“The system needs changing…but no, it’s the right way. We do need to look into assessments and make sure these children are not left behind.”
She added: “We’re virtually bankrupt as a country under Labour, aren’t we? So something has got to change. Now, I’m not going to say how that’s going to change until we’ve done the research, I can’t pre-empt things. But it’s not working as it is.
“Look, I’m neurodiverse. I went to a mainstream school. My son goes to a mainstream school. And I think that’s right, because you’re right, there’s different levels. There’s also some children out there who really struggle and would find it difficult to be in a mainstream school. So we’ve got to get the balance right.
“But we don’t want people gaming the system, but equally, we don’t want people whose children have been let down.”
