Jenkyns, the MP for Morley & Outwood, was appointed as a parliamentary under-secretary of state for education on Friday evening, in Boris Johnson’s reshuffle of the caretaker government.
The minister has since said she was 'sticking up for herself' after receiving death threats.
Jenkyns was also heard to shout as she left Downing Street following Mr Johnson's speech.
In videos recorded of her leaving, she told the crowd, ‘He who laughs last, laughs loudest. Wait and see.’
In a statement on Twitter, Ms Jenkyns said she had received 'huge amounts of abuse from some of the people who were there over the years’.
She added, ‘I have also had seven death threats in the last four years. Two of which have been in recent weeks and are currently being investigated by the police, I had reached the end of my tether.
‘I responded and stood up for myself. Just why should anyone have to put up with this kind of treatment.’
But Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said her explanation was insufficient to explain her actions.
Writing on Twitter, he said ‘In my 32 years as a teacher, 15 of them as headteacher, I inevitably dealt with moments of poor behaviour and inappropriate conduct - from young people and staff.
‘I have to say, “I'm only human' was never good enough as an excuse from any of them for any of it.’
David Lammy, MP for Tottenham and shadow foreign secretary said on Twitter, 'Is it too much to ask in @BorisJohnson Britain that the new Education Minister set an example to our nations children and not show the general public her middle finger.'
Brendan Clarke-Smith (right) was also appointed a parliamentary under-secretary of state in the Department for Education (DfE) on the same day.
He was elected as an MP for Bassetlaw in Nottinghamshire in the 2019 general election, one of the so-called ‘red wall’ MPs, the first Conservative MP to take the traditionally Labour seat since 1929.
The Brexit-supporting MP has a PGCE in RE, taught at an international school in Romania and has a Romanian wife, who is a doctor at the local hospital.
Clarke-Smith has received media attention for his views on food banks and free school meals for children from deprived families.
He has been reported as describing food banks as a ‘political weapon’, saying it is ‘simply not true’ that ‘people can't afford to buy food on a regular basis’ and ‘If you keep saying to people that you're going to give stuff away, then you're going to have an increase I'm afraid.’
