Ranil Jayawardena of Sri Lankan origin has emerged victorious in the June 8 British parliamentary elections for the second time, bagging 65.5% of the votes cast in the Hampshire North East constituency.

A “traditional conservative” Jayawardena had no difficulty in beating his nearest rival, Barry Jones of Labor. Jones got only 17% of the votes.

Jayawardena came to the limelight in 2015 election (which he won), after a video showing a rival candidate threatening to kill him was released. The candidate, Robert Blay of the United Kingdom Independent Party was suspended from the party. Blay received only 4,732 votes.

This is what Jayawardena said about himself: “As a pretty traditional sort of Conservative, I believe that families are the central blocks of building a society that works for everyone. That’s why I believe that it is the responsibility of all Governments – of whatever hue – to remove the obstacles that might discriminate against families.”

“Families come in all shapes and sizes. Over the last few decades, British society has experienced an unprecedented change in its attitudes towards family, including its attitudes to marriage and children. Prior to the 1960s, the percentage of children born outside marriage had remained remarkably stable for centuries and rarely went much above five per cent. Today, nearly half of all children born in Britain are born to unwed parents, of whom, sadly, 35 per cent have split up before their child’s fifth birthday – compared with only 9 per cent of parents married before the birth.”

“Not only is the UK almost last amongst OECD countries ranked by the proportion of children and adolescents living in households with both parents, it is behind in recognition of family and marriage in the tax system also. While the human cost of this to children is impossible to quantify, the financial cost of family breakdown – children of separated parents being up to 75 per cent more likely to face educational, behavioural, financial and health problems – is estimated at £47.5 billion a year.”

In the last parliament, Jayawardena had consistently voted against any investigation into the conduct of British troops in Iraq and has been a staunch advocate of Britain’s leaving the European Union.(newsin.asia)