Richard Drax to earn millions from sale of Barbados slave plantation

Tory MP Richard Drax is set to earn millions from the sale of part of his family's former slave plantation on Barbados so the land can be used for housing.

The politician owns a 250-hectare (617-acre) sugar plantation on the Caribbean island that was built by his ancestors in the 17th century.

The Drax family pioneered the plantation system and played a major role in the development of sugar and slavery across the Caribbean and United States. 

Historians estimate as many as 30,000 slaves lived and died on the Drax estate in the 200 years between the plantation's establishment in the 1620s and the abolition of slavery in 1833.

Mr Drax, 66, has faced calls to pay reparations to Barbados but previously insisted that although his family's past was 'deeply, deeply regrettable', no one can be held responsible 'for what happened many hundreds of years ago.'

Now he is reportedly set to earn around £3million as the island's government buys 21 hectares - around 15 football pitches - of his land so homes can be built on it.

Tory MP Richard Drax is set to earn millions from the sale of part of his family's former slave plantation on Barbados so the land can be used for housing © Provided by Daily Mail

The politician owns a 250-hectare (617-acre) sugar plantation on the Caribbean island that was built by his ancestors in the 17th century. Above: Drax Hall© Provided by Daily Mail

Critics including Barbados' poet laureate Esther Phillips hit out at the move.

She told The Guardian that the deal is an 'atrocity' and added: 'He should be giving us this land as reparations, not further enriching himself … at the expense of Barbadians. As Barbadians, we must speak out against this.'F

Barbadian MP Trevor Prescod, chair of the island's reparations taskforce, said: 'What a bad example this is. Reparations and Drax Hall are now top of the global agenda. How do we explain this to the world?

'The government should not be entering into any [commercial] relationship with Richard Drax, especially as we are negotiating with him regarding reparations.' 

Ms Mottley's spokesperson said the purchase of Mr Drax's land is not linked to reparations and that the government 'constantly acquires land through this process.' 

Ms Mottley has promised to build 10,000 homes to meet demand on the island, which is grappling with 20,000 applications for housing. 

A valuation surveyor said the market value of agricultural land that is set to be used for housing would be around Bds$150,000 (£60,000) per acre. 

That means Mr Drax could net around £3.2million. 

In 2022, Barbados demanded that Mr Drax pay reparations and he was reportedly threatened with legal action in the international courts by politicians on the island.

It is estimated that between 1627 to 1807, some 387,000 Africans were sent to Barbados against their will. Above: Shackled Africans being taken into slavery© Provided by Daily Mail

He did have a private meeting with the country's prime minister Mia Mottley about the issue. 

The heart of the politician's estate is the 17th century Drax Hall, which some campaigners want to turn into an Afro-centric museum.   

After English sailors settled on Barbados in 1627, it became Britain's second colony – after Virginia had been founded in North America.

Barbados's own parliament – which was modelled on that of its colonial master back in England – was established in 1639, making it the third oldest in the entire Commonwealth. 

It is estimated that between 1627 to 1807, some 387,000 Africans were sent to the island against their will and the country shifted from having a majority white population of voluntary settlers to a majority black population.

At the end of 2021, Barbadians opted to make the country a republic, an act which removed the late Queen Elizabeth as their head of state. 

The move came more than 50 years after Barbados became fully independent in 1966.

That year, Her Majesty and Prince Philip were greeted by rapturous crowds as they touched down in Bridgetown, Barbados's capital, for the start of a five-week tour of the Caribbean.

However, in recent years Barbados has embraced a reported $490million in funding from China for new developments. 

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Greek and Turkish delegations meet in Athens as part of efforts to improve often strained ties

Delegations from Greece and Turkey were meeting in Athens on Monday as part of long-standing efforts to improve often tense relations between the two neighbors, days after Turkey voiced objections over Greece’s plans to create marine nature reserves in the Ionian and Aegean seas. 

The two regional rivals are NATO allies but have been at odds for decades over a series of issues, including territorial claims in the Aegean and drilling rights in the Mediterranean, and have come to the brink of war three times in the last 50 years. A dispute over energy exploration rights in 2020 led to the two countries’ warships facing off in the Mediterranean.

Monday’s meeting in the Defense Ministry in Athens was to discuss confidence-building measures, following a similar meeting in Ankara last November. The two countries have engaged in the confidence-building process on and off for years, trying to seek common ground on a series of lower-key issues as a means of improving ties. 

The meeting comes ahead of planned talks in Ankara on May 13 between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Tense ties have improved significantly over the past year, with Erdogan visiting Athens in December and signing a raft of trade, energy and education deals.  

But Mitsotakis’ announcement last week that Greece will create two marine parks for the protection of sea mammals and birds — one in the Ionian Sea in western Greece and one in the central Aegean — has angered Turkey.

Omer Celik, spokesman for Erdogan’s ruling party, said last week that Ankara considers the creation of the marine parks “a step that sabotages the normalization process” in relations, and said Turkey would “in no way allow actions toward the declaration of marine parks in the Aegean Sea.” 

Mitsotakis, speaking last week after a meeting of European leaders in Brussels, expressed surprise at what he described as “Turkey’s totally unjustified reaction to an initiative which at the end of the day is of an environmental nature.”

The Greek prime minister said the recent improvement in relations between Greece and Turkey was “undeniable and measurable,” but that this did not mean Turkey had changed its positions on the delineation of maritime zones in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean. 

“These positions remain positions which are deeply problematic for our country,” Mitsotakis said.

“But this does not prevent us from being able to talk, to create a general good climate and invest more in a positive agenda and less in the issues which divide us and over which we clearly disagree.” 

Turkey’s delegation at Monday’s talks was led by Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Akcapar, while the Greek one was headed by Ambassador Theocharis Lalakos, Greece’s Defense Ministry said.

Ex-Scottish leader Sturgeon's husband charged with embezzling party funds

By Sachin Ravikumar

LONDON (Reuters) -Former Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon's husband Peter Murrell has been charged with embezzlement of funds from her pro-independence Scottish National Party (SNP), media reported on Thursday.

The development will put the SNP, which has dominated Scottish politics for most of the last two decades, under fresh scrutiny ahead of a UK national election expected later this year. 

Both Sturgeon and Murrell, formerly the SNP's chief executive, had been arrested and released without charge on separate occasions last year as part of an investigation into the party's finances.

Murrell was re-arrested on Thursday and questioned as part of the same probe, the BBC and other media reported.

"A 59-year-old man has today ... been charged in connection with the embezzlement of funds from the Scottish National Party," Police Scotland said in a statement without naming Murrell. He is no longer in custody.

Police have been investigating what happened to more than 600,000 pounds ($754,140) in funding raised by Scottish independence campaigners in 2017 which was supposed to have been ring-fenced, but may have been used for other purposes.

At the time of Murrell's arrest in April last year, police carried out a lengthy search of the couple's home in Glasgow, which was sealed off with blue and white police tape. 

Sturgeon, who served as Scotland's first minister from 2014 until February last year, has denied any wrongdoing and not commented on her husband.

Sturgeon resigned last year in a shock move, saying she had become too divisive to lead her country to independence.

Support for the SNP has dropped, and a poll this month put Britain's main opposition Labour Party ahead of the SNP for the first time in Scotland since the 2014 independence referendum in which Scots voted by 55% to 45% to remain part of the UK.

Britain must hold a national election by January 2025.

The SNP said it would not be appropriate to comment on Murrell's arrest. A party spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reported embezzlement charge against him. 

(Reporting by Sachin Ravikumar; Editing by Andrew Heavens, Rosalba O'Brien, Jonathan Oatis and Daniel Wallis) Story by Reuters: