Andrea Jenkyns claimed ducks were being “stolen and eaten” in Boston as she tried to defend Nigel Farage’s baseless claims that migrants are eating swans from Royal Parks.
This week, Farage went on national radio and suggested that swans are “being eaten” by Eastern European migrants.
The claims have been dismissed by both the Royal Parks charity, who say they have received no reports of such incidents, and the RSPCA.
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Farage’s comments have been widely mocked, but Lincolnshire’s Reform mayor Andrea Jenkyns didn’t hesitate in trying to defend her leader during an appearance on Sky News.
After it was put to her by presenter Darren McCaffrey that there is a ‘pattern of Reform politicians saying things that there’s no evidence for,’ Jenkyns launched into a bizarre rant about ducks in Boston.
Sat beside a bemused Thangam Debbonaire, Jenkyns said: “I was a councillor in Boston, and there was a serious issue with our ducks on the River Witham being stolen and eaten, it is a fact – and that’s going back ten years ago!”
When it was put to Jenkyns that there no evidence for Farage’s claims about swans in Royal Parks, she simply replied: “Well he’d heard.”
McCaffrey then pointed out to the Reform mayor that saying “you’ve heard stuff” is not a strong enough argument to back up claims as extreme as ‘migrants are eating swans.’
Reacting to Jenkyns’ claims about Boston ducks, former MP Anna Soubry said this had “bugger all to do with migrants.”
She wrote on X: “Pantomime Dame Andrea Jenkyns who’s many sandwiches short of a full picnic, claims ‘they’ were stealing ducks off the river in Boston.
“Can someone tell her there’s a centuries old problem in Lincolnshire (& other places) of people nicking birds to eat – it’s called poaching. And it’s got bugger all to do with migrants.”