Monarch Elizabeth II Nationality British Children Tamara Drax Majority 7,443 (14.8%) Role British Politician | Name Richard Drax | |
 | ||
Full Name Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax Born 29 January 1958 (age 66) ( 1958-01-29 ) Spouse Zara Drax (m. 1985–1997), Elsebet Drax Parents Walter Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax, Pamela Weeks Similar People John Baron, Roger Godsiff, Crispin Blunt | ||
Preceded by Jim (now Baron) Knight | ||
Brexit richard drax conservative mp says outof eu part 1 of 4
Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (born 29 January 1958), known as Richard Drax, is a Conservative Party politician and a former British Army officer and journalist.
Contents
- Brexit richard drax conservative mp says outof eu part 1 of 4
- Richard Drax MP at the Brexit Legal Advice Statement
- Education
- Military service
- Journalism
- Parliamentary career
- Family
- References
Drax has served as Member of Parliament (MP) for South Dorset since the 2010 general election. He was re-elected in 2017.
Richard Drax MP at the Brexit Legal Advice Statement
Education
Born in Westminster, Drax was 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.
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; he was given the service number 506831. 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.
On 5 February 2013, Drax voted in the House of Commons against a Second Reading of the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 which legalised marriage for same-sex couples.
Family
Drax is the eldest son of 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 (cr. 1462): 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 (divorced 1997) 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 (related to David Cameron); Drax has remarried 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.
His home is the ancestral seat, Charborough House, Dorset and Drax holds the lordship of the manor of Longburton.
Drax is an outspoken Eurosceptic, despite personally benefiting from EU subsidies.
Between 2006-09 his family estates received €2,055,941 in farm subsidy payments from the European Union.
In 2016, the Drax estate received £365,509 in direct aid and rural development funding from the EU on top of £384,351 received in 2015.