Former Education Minister Andrea Jenkyns says she has “no regrets” about flicking her middle finger at a baying mob outside Downing Street.
Jenkyns was infamously pictured making the gesture as she attended Boris Johnson’s leaving speech earlier this year.
Speaking exclusively to GB News, the Tory MP said didn’t regret it, and opened up about the horrific death threats she’s received in politics.
Reflecting on the incident, she told Gloria De Piero: “ I've had about eight death threats over the years, and you really get sick of it. And I saw Steve Bray there. I think everybody knows Steve Bray, the anti-Brexit guy. And he's been hounding me since my little one was in his pram, even when my little one was in his pram.
Andrea Jenkyns said she has no regrets
GB News
“He's just got no respect for anybody. And I just thought, these people have got what they want now, there was all shouting, Boris is resigning and stepping down, leave him alone. And I just got sick of this double standard. So, I’d just had enough.”
Asked if she had any regrets she said: “I don't really. No. I mean I didn't expect to become a minister the next day, that was unexpected.
“But no. You know, people should treat people better. And when you've had death threats, when you've had to get CCTV at your home, you’ve had people tell you to kill yourself, you just get sick of it, to be honest.”
Opening up on those threats, she described how one man was arrested for saying he wanted to blow her up.
Jenkyns, the MP for Morley and Outwood, said: “I was preparing for my niece’s wedding, so I was in the local hairdressers on the High Street, getting my hair done.
“My team ran in and one of them said: ‘We phoned the police, the local security guards at the town hall are saying a man said he is looking for you, he wants to blow you up’.
“That's the only time I've ever wanted to quit. Because I'm quite a tough cookie, being a northerner. But when you've got a little one, when you've got a 5-year-old...
"I sat in the hairdressers for those 10 minutes waiting for the police to arrive and I asked the hairdressers whether they had an exit in the back door in case I needed to run.
Andrea Jenkyns said she believes Boris Johnson will be prime minister again.
PA
"Then I was thinking, ‘God, how do I keep them safe?’, and that's the only moment in politics I've ever wanted to quit.
“And for a good month or two, actually, I was thinking, ‘Do I quit? Is it really worth it?’. He got let off. He said it was a joke.”
But it wasn't an isolated case.
She said: "Then there was another chap who I got 70 emails from, a constituent, middle class guy, beautiful home, own business, so, it's not just some loner in his bedroom on a laptop, calling my child the devil child. It got quite sexual.
“It got aggressive, telling me to buy a stab vest. And you just get off with a caution.
“He said, ‘I was bored, and I hate the Tories’, and I think that is unacceptable. You can't treat people that way.”
Meanwhile Jenykns, a big supporter of Boris Johnson's premiership, says she hopes he returns one day.
“I hope he will one day, definitely,” she said. “I think he's got more to give, definitely.”
Ahead of the Budget next week she also set out what she’d like to see Jeremy Hunt do.
She added: “The one thing would be lower taxes. That affects everybody. And also including corporation tax, you know, post-Brexit Britain, we need to be ready for business, be attractive for investment which will help the economy.”
