A fortune built on slavery, now Tory MP shamed for paying below minimum wage
Drax firm named over shortfall for shooting parties
ESTATES Drax Hall and Barbados farm
A TORY MP whose family made their millions through slavery has been named and shamed for not paying UK staff the minimum wage.
Super-rich Richard Drax’s Morden Estates Company was dubbed a “rogue employer” by the taxman because beaters employed to scare out birds for shooting parties were short-changed.
A total of 43 were underpaid by £2,761. Mr Drax – wealthiest landowner in the Commons and worth as much as £150million – coughed up the balance when HMRC flagged the issue.
The news comes weeks after the Sunday Mirror revealed he had failed to register at Parliament that he was running a Barbados sugar plantation.
Drax Hall relied on slaves for almost 200 years and the MP admitted his ancestors’ involvement was regrettable.
In a new embarrassment, Morden Estates appears on a list of 139 firms included in a press release headed “Rogue employers named and shamed for failing to pay minimum wage”.
Employers – including Tesco, Superdrug and Pizza Hut – underpaid more than 95,000 staff by a total of £6.7million from 2016-18, the Government says.
Mr Drax has said the “infringement” concerning the beaters on his South Dorset estate came about because of a technicality.
The MP said: “The 2017 case relates to the occasional casual engagement of beaters in relation to the estate sporting business. This activity is widely regarded as recreational and participants have,
for generations, attended because they enjoy the countryside and the camaraderie. A modest sum was paid to participants in acknowledgement of their contribution and costs.
“The estate was operating in accordance with accepted industry best practice and sought to co-operate fully with HMRC as soon as it highlighted the matter could be a technical infringement of the minimum wage regulations.
“The case was concluded quickly and all sums due were settled. No further issues or concerns have been raised.”
It is not the first complaint Mr Drax has heard over earnings.
Sugar plantation workers claim retirement bonuses were withdrawn after the MP took charge of the estate following his father’s death in 2017.
Campaigners have demanded Mr Drax, 62, pay reparations for harm caused by his family’s slave trade.
Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the Caribbean Community Reparations Commission and vice-chancellor of the University of the West Indies, said: “People of Barbados and Jamaica are entitled to reparatory justice. Black life mattered only to make millionaires of English enslavers. The Drax family did it longer than any elite family.”
Mr Drax registered ownership of the plantation with Parliament on December 11, explaining legal transfer to his name was dictated by probate issues.