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Ranil Jayawardena

Ranil Jayawardena

A SUCCESSFUL UK-India trade deal could see a £300 million boost to the economy of the West Midlands, Shropshire and Staffordshire in the long term as a result of new opportunities, particularly for manufacturers of cars and parts, UK minister for International Trade Ranil Jayawardena said recently.

India is on course to become the third-largest economy in the world by 2050, and the government hopes UK-India trade will double over the course of this decade. “There would be huge opportunities from this deal for the West Midlands. A huge number of jobs have already been created in the West Midlands as a result of investment from India with almost 30,000 in the region in 2019 employed because of Indian investment,” Jayawardena, one of the strong advocates of the deal said.


Jayawardena assumed the role in May 2020. In post-Brexit Britain, his role assumes greater significance. “A Global Britain who stands tall as a fierce champion of the free and fair, rules-based, international trade system, that not only gives us the weapons to fight this pandemic but will be the key to our future prosperity. A Global Britain who regains her buccaneering belief as a dynamic trading superpower, with a red-tape slashing spirit and cutting-edge trade support,” Jayawardena recently wrote on his website.

Jayawardena’s department has been responsible for non-EU trade and the minister said that his department has already secured trade agreements with 63 countries, most recently with countries, including Mexico, Singapore, and Vietnam.

He was first elected as the Member of Parliament for North East Hampshire in May 2015 and was re-elected in 2017 and 2019. Jayawardena was selected in an open primary as the parliamentary candidate in 2013.

He went on to be elected as the MP for the constituency at the 2015 general election, with the largest margin of victory by any Conservative MP in the election.

Before serving as a minister, Jayawardena was a member of the International Trade, Home Affairs, Procedure and Arms Export Controls Committees, and was appointed by the Speaker of the House of Commons to the chairmans’ panel. He was also made deputy chairman of the Conservative Party by the prime minister.

Before his election to parliament, he was a councillor, serving as deputy leader of the Borough of Basingstoke and Deane, part of which is within the constituency. An alumnus of London School of Economics, Jayawardena combined his service in local government with working for Lloyds Banking Group and is a Freeman of the City of London. He also has wide-ranging commercial experience from the pharmaceutical, construction, transport and leisure sectors.

In December 2015, he voted to support prime minister David Cameron’s plans to carry out airstrikes against ISIL targets in Syria. After becoming an MP, he continued to be vocal about local issues that he had supported as a councillor such as protecting weekly bin collections.  Jayawardena supported Brexit in the June 2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum.

He was born in London on September 3, 1986. His father Nalin Jayawardena is of Sri Lankan origin and moved to the UK in 1978 to pursue a career in accountancy. His mother, Indira Jayawardena, is of Indian heritage. He grew up in Hook, and went to Hook Infants and Juniors, before Robert May’s in Odiham and Alton College. Currently, he lives in Bramley, Hampshire. He has been married to Alison (née Roberts), a solicitor, since 2011. The couple has two daughters. He is a Christian and was a trustee/director of the Conservative Christian Fellowship. Jayawardena likes watching cricket, tennis and rugby.

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