diff --git a/jenkins/prepare_synapse.sh b/jenkins/prepare_synapse.sh
index 237223c81b..6c26c5842c 100755
--- a/jenkins/prepare_synapse.sh
+++ b/jenkins/prepare_synapse.sh
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ fi
 tox -e py27 --notest -v
 
 TOX_BIN=$TOX_DIR/py27/bin
+$TOX_BIN/pip install setuptools
 python synapse/python_dependencies.py | xargs -n1 $TOX_BIN/pip install
 $TOX_BIN/pip install lxml
 $TOX_BIN/pip install psycopg2