Prime Minister Boris Johnson has appointed Ranil Jayawardena, MP for North East Hampshire as the Parliamentary Vice Chairman for the Conservative party.
Jayawardena was born and brought up in London. He graduated from the London School of Economics (LSE) and worked for Lloyds banking Group, rising to become a senior manager. He was first elected as an MP in May 2015, and re-elected in 2017.
His father Nalin is of Sri Lankan origin, who moved to the UK in 1978 to pursue a career in accountancy. His mother, Indira, has Indian heritage. He has two siblings. Jayawardena is married to a solicitor and has two daughters.
Jayawardena served as a councillor of Basingstoke and Deane in Hampshire from 2008 to 2015. During his time as a councillor, he was also the Cabinet Member for Finance and Property, before being made Deputy Leader of the Council, where he had a particular focus on urban revitalisation and economic regeneration.
He went on to be elected as the MP for the constituency at the 2015 general election with 35,573 votes (65.9% share) and a majority of 29,916. This was the largest margin of victory by any Conservative MP in the election. During the election, the candidate for the UK Independence party was suspended after appearing to make a death threat towards Jayawardena.
In his 'maiden speech', he outlined his belief in the rule of law, in human rights, and in equality before the law being matched by equality in opportunity, but contended that human rights were not invented in 1998 and that rights must be balanced by responsibilities.
In the 2015–17 Parliament, he was part of the Home Affaits Committee and the International Trade Committee. In January 2018, In January 2018, Jayawardena was made Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Ministerial team at the Department for Work and Pensions.
Commenting on this appointment, Chairman of the Conservative Party James Cleverly MP, said: “I’m absolutely delighted to welcome a wealth of talent to the rest of the team at CCHQ.
“These new appointments bring years’ worth of experience to the Party and I look forward to working with all of them.”
