Unfortunately Lincolnshire looks like it’s stuck with Mayor Andrea Jenkyns for now.
She was in the process of being taken to court on the basis that she should never have been allowed to run for mayor in the first place. That’s because you can’t just stand for mayor for any random bit of the country that takes your fancy. You need to fulfil some criteria that makes you are connected to the place in question. Typically this would mean you live there, although there are also alternatives.
Per the BBC:
Guidance by the Electoral Commission, external states that in order to be allowed to stand, candidates need to live or work in the area, own or rent land or property there, or be on the electoral roll.
Now, not even Mayor Jenkyns herself seems to be arguing that she does actually live in Lincolnshire at present. Apparently she still lives in Yorkshire – and nor did she have a work connection to the area at the time.
How did she do it then? However, just a month or so before the election she did manage get her name added to the electoral roll at a Lincolnshire address.
Dame Andrea was added to the North Kesteven electoral roll at an address in Bassingham, near Lincoln, this month. Inclusion on the roll is based on where someone lives and can include second homes.
It seems that in order to get around the “you should live in the area that you are running for mayor in” she used her privilege to rent a second home (or perhaps room in a house?) which let her get onto the electoral register.
It’s a tip that could have come straight out of the handbook of her boss, Nigel Farage, who once pretended to have bought a house in the area that he is supposed to be representing as MP.
Another candidate in the area, Councillor Overton, was still appealing Andrea Jenkyns’ eligibility to the local High Court – but recently dropped the appeal on the basis of there being more important issues to focus on.
Nonetheless, Overton continues to believe in the justice of her claim saying:
The principle of our elected representatives being committed to our local area is vital. That is why it is set in law that candidates live or work in the area they hope to represent. Just renting a room does not suffice.
Local candidacy is important for democracy. If we have candidates parachuted in for political expediency, to whom will they be listening, their political boss or local residents?
So the mayor survives to continue sacking non-existent staff, denying basic climate reality on behalf of her party’s wealthy fossil fuel paymasters, damaging the local economy and jobs market and potentially increasing the risk of flooding in an already extremely flood prone area for another day.