Sierra Leone: MP in £1.5m diamond mine row

A senior Conservative Party MP in the United Kingdom who heads a Commons committee to alleviate poverty in the Third World has been accused of attempting to use his position to make up to £1.5m for his own company, according to the Sunday Times newspaper. Tony Baldry, a former foreign minister, has been paid by a diamond firm to lobby the government of a west African country to secure valuable diamond concessions, says the newspaper. Baldry, chairman of the Commons international development committee, has close links with Sierra Leone, a war-ravaged country heavily dependent on British aid.