Sir John Alan Redwood (born 15 June 1951) is a British politician and academic who was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Wokingham in Berkshire from 1987 to 2024.

Redwood subsequently served in the Shadow Cabinets of William Hague and Michael Howard; he remained a backbencher from then on.

[1] Prior to becoming an MP, Redwood completed a doctorate at All Souls College, Oxford and served as Director of the Number 10 Policy Unit under Margaret Thatcher.

[8] At All Souls, he wrote a DPhil thesis which investigated the fear of atheism in England, from the Restoration to the publication of Alciphron by George Berkeley.

[16][17] Redwood was opposed to attempts to reduce the age of consent for homosexuality in both 1994 and 1999, choosing to vote to keep Section 28 in November 2003.

He voted for the reintroduction of capital punishment in 1988, 1990 and 1994 and voiced support for the reintroducing of the death penalty when he launched his leadership bid on 26 June 1995.

[19] Redwood has stated since then: "I have never spoken or written against civil partnerships and gay marriage and am not proposing any change to current laws.

He was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions in June 1999,[24] but was dropped in a mini reshuffle in February 2000, being succeeded by Archie Norman.

[33] Following the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, Redwood called for radical reform involving the establishment of an English Parliament.

His politicking prior to and succeeding the referendum placed him "front and centre" to any political gain due to the perceived power vacuum resulting from any possible changes to the status quo of the union.

[45] Redwood consequently gained a somewhat haughty reputation with apparent disregard for Welsh national feeling; this did not endear him further to some of the population,[46] including when he returned £100 million of Wales's block grant to the Treasury unspent in 1995.

[51] A critic of the Euro before its launch, in 2011 Redwood suggested that the Eurozone should "break up", and proposed that the United Kingdom should give up its Council voting rights in return for the ability to opt out of any EU legislation.

Later that year, he joined 81 rebel Conservative MPs in voting for an in-out referendum for leaving the European Union, saying afterwards "People used to call me an extreme Eurosceptic.

"[51] Before the Brexit referendum, Redwood wrote that, to Conservative Eurosceptics like him, leaving the EU was "more important than which party wins the next election or who is the prime minister.

[54][55] In statements to media and in the House of Commons, Redwood has consistently defended the position that the UK should not pay the so-called Brexit bill (amounting to around £39 billion).

[58][59] In December 2019, Redwood voted in favour of the Withdrawal Agreement through which the UK accepts to pay its outstanding financial obligations to the EU.

He has often been compared to a Vulcan, a comparison originally made by Matthew Parris, due to his physical appearance and intonation,[2] a preference for making arguments with logic over passion[7] and a perception for being cold and humourless.