Oxford and Cambridge Unions scrap Namal Rajapaksa’s address.

Feb 22, 2026

The Oxford Union has cancelled a planned address by Sri Lankan MP Namal Rajapaksa, following mounting pressure from British Tamils and student organisations across the country.

The late intervention comes days after the Cambridge Union, which had also invited Rajapaksa to speak, withdrew its own event amid widespread criticism and planned demonstrations.

In a statement to Cherwell, Oxford’s independent student-run newspaper, Oxford Union President Katherine Yang said the decision was taken after students raised serious concerns about their safety and ability to participate.

“A core part of the Union’s purpose is enabling direct, open questioning from students. In this case, a significant number of the students most closely connected to the subject matter communicated that they did not feel safe asking questions openly. While alternative formats (such as submitting questions indirectly) were considered… I felt that the inability of those most affected to participate directly undermined the substance of the forum.

“An event where key stakeholders cannot engage on equal footing does not produce the kind of robust debate the Union is intended to facilitate.”

Rajapaksa has been due to address the Union in less than 24 hours’ time.

The cancellation follows days of coordinated mobilisation by student and British Tamil groups across the UK, who had condemned the decision to host Rajapaksa and called for the event to be scrapped. Several had been preparing to stage a protest outside the Oxford Union alongside several other student organisations, with backing from Oxford Action for Palestine.

The controversy had drawn attention across the country, with student organisations and civil society groups warning that the platforming of a senior member of the Rajapaksa political dynasty would be deeply distressing to survivors of Sri Lankan state violence and to British Tamils.

Despite the cancellations in both Oxford and Cambridge, Rajapaksa has already arrived in the United Kingdom. He has posted on social media about meetings with Sinhala Buddhist groups, including two groups of Buddhist monks in London.

Namal Rajapaksa is a senior figure within the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the political heir of the Rajapaksa family, which has dominated Sri Lankan politics for much of the past two decades. He is the son of former president Mahinda Rajapaksa and the nephew of former defence secretary and president Gotabaya Rajapaksa. Under their leadership, the Sri Lankan state oversaw the final phase of the armed conflict in 2009, during which tens of thousands of Eelam Tamils were killed in what international organisations and Tamil groups have described as mass atrocities and genocide. The Rajapaksa family remains synonymous with those events, as well as with the subsequent militarisation of the Tamil homeland and continued impunity for alleged war crimes.

Namal Rajapaksa’s political career has been closely tied to the Rajapaksa family’s patronage networks and has been linked to allegations of corruption. He was arrested in 2016 over corruption-related charges and remains on bail in connection with financial crime cases.

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