[5][6] Jenkyns served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Skills from July to October 2022, when she was dismissed by new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
She failed to win re-election to the successor seat of Leeds South West and Morley at the 2024 general election.
[7] Jenkyns was made Dame of the British Empire by 2022 outgoing UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
[12] Following an open primary in 2013, Jenkyns was selected to contest the Morley and Outwood parliamentary seat as the Conservative candidate.
Jenkyns supported Brexit in the 2016 EU membership referendum[15] and was a member of the Exiting the European Union Select Committee from 2016 to 2019.
[19][11] In May 2018, Jenkyns quit her role as a PPS in the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in order to focus on fighting for Brexit.
[31] In February 2020, Jenkyns defended her decision to provide a character reference for the court case of a Conservative Party activist who made violent threats to Labour MP Yvette Cooper and was subsequently jailed for nine weeks.
[34] On the way to attending Boris Johnson's resignation speech in Downing Street, Jenkyns was filmed making a "middle finger" gesture at protesters.
[35] Jenkyns said she made the gesture after being provoked by a "baying mob", stating she had received "huge amounts of abuse from some of the people who were there over the years".
[39] Jenkyns lost her seat in parliament in the general election of 4 July 2024, receiving 9,258 votes against Labour's Mark Sewards with 17,681.
[51][52] In March 2024, Jenkyns revealed to GB News that she had been targeted with abusive emails, with the most recent threatening her six-year-old son.
[58] Jenkyns was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire on 9 June 2023 as part of the 2022 Prime Minister's Resignation Honours.