Suella Fernandes

Early life and education

Fernandes's parents emigrated to Britain in the 1960s from Kenya and Mauritius. Her mother was a nurse and local councillor in Brent and her father worked for a housing association. She was born in Harrow, London and grew up in Wembley. Her early education was at the state comprehensive Uxendon Manor Primary School in Brent and the independent Heathfield School, Pinner on a scholarship.

Fernandes studied Law at Queens College, Cambridge and completed a Masters in European and French Law at Pantheon-Sorbonne University. During her undergraduate studies, she was President of the Cambridge University Conservative Association. Between 2005 and 2015, Fernandes practised as a barrister.

Legal career and political candidate

Fernandes is a member of Middle Temple where she won the Astbury Scholarship in 2005. She completed her pupillage at 2-3 Gray’s Inn Square (now Cornerstone Barristers). From 2008 onwards, she was based at No5 Chambers in London specialising in planning, judicial review and immigration law.

She was appointed to the Attorney General’s Panel of Treasury Counsel in 2010.

In the 2005 general election, Fernandes contested Leicester East, coming second to Labour's Keith Vaz. She attempted to be selected as the Conservative candidate in Bexhill and Battle, but was unsuccessful, and was eventually selected to be the Conservative candidate in Fareham.

Fernandes also sought election to the London Assembly at the 2012 Assembly elections, being placed fourth on the Conservative London-wide list. She missed out, however, as only the first three candidates were elected.

Parliamentary career

Fernandes was elected to the House of Commons as the MP for Fareham in 2015 with 56.1% of the vote and a majority of 22,262. She gave her maiden speech on 1 June 2015. She has taken a particular interest in education, home affairs and justice and has written for The Daily Telegraph, Bright Blue, i news, HuffPost, Brexit Central and ConservativeHome.

Between 2015-17, Fernandes was a member of the Education Select Committee and the Education, Skills and the Economy Sub-Committee. Between November 2015 to February 2016 she was a member of the Joint Committee on the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill.

Fernandes chaired the All-party parliamentary group (APPG) on Financial Education for Young People from September 2016 to May 2017. She led a Parliamentary inquiry and launched a report into the provision of financial education in schools (Financial Education in Schools: Two Years On – Job Done?) and campaigned for better financial education in schools, working with the charity Young Enterprise and the moneysaving expert, Martin Lewis.

She is a Commissioner on the Social Market Foundation commission on inequality in education, a cross-party initiative which is examining the causes and effects of inequality in education at primary and secondary levels in England and Wales.

Fernandes joined the Armed Forces Parliamentary Scheme in 2016, graduating from the scheme in 2017. She has visited the British Army Training Unit Suffield in Canada, the Royal Marines for Arctic Warfare Training at Asegarden Camp in northern Norway, the Defence Academy of the United Kingdom at Shrivenham and the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers in Rosyth.

Fernandes led a Westminster Hall debate in the House of Commons on the failings of Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust and has chaired meetings with the Trust’s executives along with other MPs on the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Hampshire to question issues of poor care quality and the deaths of patients. She is a member of the panel of an inquiry led by think tank British Future to examine how the government can protect rights of EU citizens in the UK.

Fernandes campaigned to leave the European Union in the 2016 EU membership referendum; a majority (55%) of her constituents voted to leave. She is Chair of the European Research Group a pro-leave group of Conservative MPs' which works to support the Government and campaigned for the UK to leave the European Customs Union and the Single Market.

Following the 2017 General Election, Fernandes was appointed Parliamentary Private Secretary to HM Treasury Ministers.

Free schools

She is Chair of Governors at the Michaela Community School, and supports plans to create a free school in Fareham. She sits on the Advisory Board of the New Schools Network, a charity which aims to support groups setting up free schools within the English state education sector.