Mark Jenkinson

The expression “Workington man” dominated the Conservative 2019 general election campaign, becoming familiar across the country encapsulating the party’s target swing voter. It worked: Mark Jenkinson generated one of the Conservatives’ biggest symbolic victories of election night in 2019 being elected as the party’s first MP in Workington since 1979. A former member of and candidate for UKIP, Jenkinson is a long-term eurosceptic, having been a founding member of UKIP’s West Cumbria branch. He left in 2016, following the EU referendum and citing concerns about “internal democracy”. He subsequently joined the Conservative Party and became a councillor on Allerdale Borough Council, soon rising to deputy leader. Prior to politics, Jenkinson was a student of agriculture, an apprentice at British Steel and a contractor in the nuclear supply chain. In 2020, he joined the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy Committee. Jenkinson is a member of APPGs on hydrogen, the Northern Powerhouse, the wood panel industry and nuclear energy. In October 2020, he was criticised for claiming that food parcels were bought and sold in his constituency for drugs – without any supporting evidence.