Mr Ranil Jayawardena

Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena has been the Conservative MP for North East Hampshire since 2015. Jayawardena attended the London School of Economics and graduated with a politics degree in 2008. Between 2008 and 2015, Jayawardena served as a councillor on the Borough of Basingstoke and Deane, eventually becoming deputy leader of the council. During this time, Jayawardena worked for Lloyds Banking Group, focusing on capital markets, corporate banking and in its group executive functions. Jayawardena also worked in the office of his parliamentary predecessor James Arbuthnot. When Arbuthnot stood down at the 2015 general election, Jayawardena replaced him, holding the seat with an increased majority of 29,916. Following his election, Jayawardena joined the home affairs select committee and, in 2016, joined the international trade committee. He was re-elected at the 2017 general election with a slightly reduced majority of 27,772. In early 2018, Jayawardena became parliamentary private secretary to the ministerial team at the Department for Work and Pensions and, in September 2018, was appointed parliamentary private secretary at the Ministry of Justice. He resigned from this role in November to oppose Theresa May’s Brexit withdrawal agreement. Jayawardena voted Leave in the 2016 referendum and went on to vote against May’s agreement on all three occasions. He backed Boris Johnson in the 2019 Conservative leadership election and voted in favour of Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement bill at the second reading. He chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Groups on Finland and Sri Lanka, and was re-elected in the 2019 general election with once again a smaller, but nonetheless spacious, winning margin of 20,211.

Hot Seat

How do you like to unwind in your free time (sport, theatre, opera, boxset etc.)? Any favourite TV show or authors?

All of the above – from cricket in the summer, to theatre in the depths of winter – and who doesn’t love a boxset?

Is there a song or piece of music you often return to? Does your choice reflect your political journey in any way?

I Vow to Thee, My Country.

What book or poem has influenced your choice of career?

The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost.