Beefy pulls stumps on restaurant firm
IAN BOTHAM has been hit for six. The cricket legend has mysteriously walked from the restaurant business he set up in 2015, I can reveal.
Lord Botham, right – a crossbench peer since 2020 – has quit as a director and sold his shares in Beefy’s Restaurants Ltd, which England’s greatest all-rounder had hoped to turn into a global brand.
When launching the joint, Botham said: ‘My philosophy has always been to ride the torpedo to the end of the tube.’ But for some reason the never seems to have made it beyond the boundary of its original site, the Ageas Bowl, home of Hampshire County Cricket Club.
In December the company was bought out by Hampshire Sport & Leisure Holdings Limited. Other directors survived the restructuring but Lord Botham appears to have had enough and pulled stumps.
The restaurant will continue to brand itself using his nickname, but Botham no longer has operational control over the business. The peer will remain an ‘ambassador’ for the eatery, a spokesman said, but refused to clarify if this is a paid position.
Botham’s exit capped a patchy performance in 2021. The new peer had to apologise last spring for breaking House of Lords rules after failing to properly declare a £197,329 director’s loan from a company he owns with his wife.
The Lords’ Standards Commissioner ruled that ‘the outstanding director’s loan to Lord Botham constitutes remuneration’ and should have been declared as a ‘taxable benefit’. Quite the contrast from the Commons Standards Commissioner, who ruled that director’s loans paid to Cabinet Minister Jacob Rees-Mogg by the company he owns (£6million over three years) did not constitute a taxable benefit. It was purely part of his ‘private and personal life’ – and therefore didn’t need to be declared.
It’s not the end of the innings for Botham, whom Boris Johnson not only ennobled but, perhaps with some mischief, made Trade Envoy to Australia. Ashes enmity aside, the only deliveries Botham now cares about are from Aussie vineyards direct to his wine business.