According to Parliament’s register of interests, Richard Drax was one 72 MPs who voted against the amendment who themselves are landlords and who derive an income over £10000 from a property. He was one of 312 Conservative MP’s who voted against a Labour amendment.Teresa Pearce, the then shadow housing minister who proposed the amendment, said renters lacked “basic consumer protection” when things went wrong.
In the wake of the Grenfell Tower tragedy this has become much more pertinent and we now await what the investigation finds. Most landlords are of course quick to respond to tenant needs but they are not legally obliged to ensure that habitation is of a certain standard. This therefore enables some landlords to take advantage and leaves many tenants in distress trying to fight for better living spaces.
Mr Drax and and his party, including other Conservative MP’s in Dorset, are not only letting tenants down but could be at least in part responsible for this tragedy. By having strict laws in place landlords would be obligated with the threat of heavy fines or even imprisonment if they do not comply.
We await with interest whether the landlord at Grenfell negated their responsibilities and whether a statute could have prevented it.
Douglas James
The 72 MP’s who are landlords (earning over £10000):
According to Parliament’s register of interests, the 72 MPs who are registered as deriving income from property of over £10,000 a year and who voted against the law are:
Nigel Adams
Stuart Andrew
Victoria Atkins
Jake Berry
James Berry
Bob Blackman
Robert Buckland
Alun Cairns
David Cameron
Alex Chalk
James Cleverley
Geoffrey Clifton-Brown
Therese Coffey
Geoffrey Cox
Mims Davies
Philip Davies
Richard Drax
James Duddridge
Alan Duncan
Philip Dunne
Jane Ellison
George Eustice
Mike Freer
Richard Fuller
John Glen
Robert Goodwill
Chris Grayling
Dominic Grieve
Chris Heaton-Harris
Peter Heaton-Jones
George Hollingberry
Kevin Hollinrake
Philip Hollobone
Nick Hurd
Stewart Jackson
Margot James
Sajid Javid
Joseph Johnson
Simon Kirby (teller)
Greg Knight
Brandon Lewis
Julian Lewis
Craig Mackinlay
Tania Mathias
Karl McCartney
Anne Marie Morris
Sheryll Murray
Robert Neill
Sarah Newton (teller)
Jesse Norman
David Nuttall
Neil Parish
Owen Paterson
Rebecca Pow
Jeremy Quin
Jacob Rees-Mogg
Laurence Robertson
Julian Smith
Royston Smith
Mark Spencer
John Stevenson
Desmond Swayne
Derek Thomas
Anne-Marie Trevelyan
Andrew Turner
Shailesh Vara
Theresa Villiers
Ben Wallace
David Warburton
Craig Whittaker
John Whittingdale
Nadhim Zahawi
