Richard Drax


Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, known as Richard Drax, is a British Conservative politician, journalist, landowner and former British Army officer, serving as the Member of Parliament for South Dorset since 2010.

Early life

Drax was born on 29 January 1958 in Westminster. He was privately educated at Harrow School before going to the Royal Agricultural College in Cirencester where he graduated with a diploma in rural land management in 1990, receiving a further diploma in journalism in 1995.

Career

Military service

Drax passed out from the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst and was commissioned in the British Army joining the Coldstream Guards on 9 December 1978 as a second lieutenant. Drax was promoted lieutenant on 9 December 1980, before being transferred to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers after active service on 9 December 1983, ending his first period of full-time military service.
Drax was reinstated on the Active List on 10 September 1984, beginning his second and final period of regular service. He retained the rank of lieutenant with seniority from 10 September 1981 to reflect the three years he had served. He was promoted captain on 10 March 1986.
He relinquished his British Army commission on 9 September 1987, thereby retiring after nine years' service as a Coldstreamer.

Journalism

Drax worked at York's Evening Press as a reporter in 1991, before joining BBC South where he appeared on both radio and television media, including the daily television news programme South Today.

Parliamentary career

Selected as a Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate in July 2006, at the general election in May 2010 Drax defeated the incumbent Labour Member of Parliament for South Dorset, Jim Knight, later Baron Knight of Weymouth. Drax retained his seat in the 2015 general election with an increased majority and the 2017 general election.
On 5 February 2013, Drax voted in the House of Commons against a Second Reading of the Marriage Act 2013 which legalised marriage for same-sex couples.
In the House of Commons he has sat on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee and currently serves on the European Scrutiny Committee.
In 2009, Drax faced criticism from political rivals for 'hiding his aristocratic roots' by not using his full quadruple-barrelled name. It was suggested the leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron, has asked wealthy Conservative candidates to shorten their names to appear more in touch with normal people. Drax denied the accusations, saying that he only used the shortened version of his name because of the "logistic mouthful", while Cameron's comments were a "throw away joke".
In January 2016, the Labour Party unsuccessfully proposed an amendment in Parliament that would have required private landlords to make their homes "fit for human habitation". According to Parliament's register of interests, Drax was one of 72 Conservative MPs who voted against the amendment who personally derived an income from renting out property. The Conservative Government had responded to the amendment that they believed homes should be fit for human habitation but did not want to pass the new law that would explicitly require it.
Drax has consistently voted against measures to limit climate change, against various pieces of equality and human rights legislation, against same sex marriage, against proportional representation, against smoking bans, against a higher tax rate for those earning above £150,000, against a bankers' bonus tax, for lower corporate taxes, for lower welfare benefits, for ending educational financial support for any 16-19 year olds and for the "bedroom tax".
In June 2020, Drax wrote an article in the Dorset Echo suggesting that rioters linked to the Black Lives Matter protests had been responsible for desecrating the cenotaph. However, the Metropolitan Police had stated that they were not aware of any damage to the cenotaph, whilst social media pictures of people climbing the monument and purporting to be from the protest were discovered to date from 2010.

Family

Drax lives in his family's ancestral seat, Charborough House – a Grade I listed manor house in rural Dorset. He holds the lordship of the manor of Longburton and is the largest individual landowner in Dorset, owning approximately 13,870 acres.
Drax is the eldest son of Henry Walter Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax and The Hon. Pamela Weeks and a grandson of Admiral The Hon. Sir Reginald Drax, younger son of the 17th Lord Dunsany thereby being in remainder to the ancient Barony of Dunsany : the second oldest title in the Peerage of Ireland. His great-uncle was the celebrated writer and playwright the 18th Lord Dunsany, and his maternal grandfather was General the Lord Weeks.
His first wife was Zara Legge-Bourke, younger sister of the royal nanny Tiggy Legge-Bourke, relations of the Earl of Dartmouth. Drax married his second wife; Eliza, daughter of Commander James Dugdale RN. Drax since married Norwegian-born Elsebet Bødtker and has four children in total.
At least six of his ancestors, including John Samuel Wanley Sawbridge Erle-Drax and the 17th Lord Dunsany, were Members of Parliament for Dorset and Gloucestershire between the 1680s and 1880s. A cousin is the 19th and present Lord Dunsany. During the 2010 United Kingdom general election campaign period, in which he was running for MP for South Dorset, the Daily Mirror reported that Drax's family had earned their fortune through slavery. Drax's response questioned his responsibility for "something that happened 300 or 400 years ago", stating "it's not what I stand for", and cited the desperation of his opponents- "all they can do is pick at bits of my family history". In 2013, the BBC noted that his ancestor John Erle-Drax, who had an estate in Barbados, was recorded in a database created by University College London as having received £4,293 12s 6d in compensation for 189 slaves when slavery was abolished.