One of the most beguiling and instantly viral moments of the Reform UK conference is the quite horrific saga in which Greater Lincolnshire Reform UK mayor Dame Andrea Jenkyns burst into song. Not just any song, but an original song – where she declared that she was an insomniac. Fittingly enough, the original song is called Insomniac. A browse of Andrea Jenkyns Wikipedia tells you it’s her first official single, apparently. A deeper dive into the lore of Andrea Jenkyns reveals that Insomniac is no little ditty on a whim she belted out at the Reform UK conference – but a glimpse into a random album she released in 2006. No, I’m not joking.
Hang on, what’s going on?
I feel like if I was an American and I saw this I’d be utterly jarred – but Dame Andrea Jenkyns, a former Conservative politician who made the even more dismal pivot to Reform UK, decided to sing a song called Insomniac. Nobody had a clue what was going on, it was all a bit of a fever dream. Obviously it went viral, with everyone dragging it – to which Andrea Jenkyns explained she wrote the song 20 years ago.
Andrea Jenkyns takes to the stage at Reform conference to sing “I’m an insomniac” pic.twitter.com/XplZMbigsq
— Aubrey Allegretti (@breeallegretti) September 5, 2025
When discussing why she ended up singing it at the party conference, Jenkyns says she wa looking for ‘copyright free music’ and would have chosen Lady Gaga “or something”. She explains that the logic was “the whole theme was people are having sleepless nights because of this god-awful Labour government. There’s a nice theme there in a way – Reform’s here to wake up the status quo and cure are insomnia.” Yeah, course Andrea. And I’m the Queen of Sheba.
We found her 2006 album and it’s on Spotify
Months back before the Andrea Jenkyns Reform party conference Insomniac performance, I alas found myself browsing her Wikipedia and saw she had in her personal life section that she’s an amateur soprano singer. Unfortunately I did not realise how amateur that would prove to be until the past few days.
Andrea Jenkyns released an 11 track album in 2006 called Ilyis. This is a word usually known these days as an acronym for I Love You I’m Sorry – associated with Gracie Abrams. But this was way before Gracie Abrams had cashed in on nepo baby status. In the name of journalism, I listened to the title track of Ilyis. It means in a horrific chorus on track one “I love you in secret”. Kind of how I feel about the Insomniac performance being sadly quite camp despite the fact I loathe everything Jenkyns stands for and oppose her in every way.
The album was self released, and Andrea says about her work on her website “She has been singing since her childhood. She self-released her own album which she co-wrote, that was an eclectic mix of pop and light rock ballads. Andrea was a music tutor in primary and secondary schools and was also a former vocal coach and musical theatre director of two children’s performing art academies. She has performed live in the UK, Europe and Asia, including for the Former Prime Minister of Pakistan.”
It’s safe to say it did not chart and there has been no follow up record.
For more like this, like The Tab on Facebook.
Featured image via NEIL HALL/EPA/Shutterstock.
