Insight: Top Tory in African contract inquiry

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April 03, 2005

Sunday Times
A SENIOR MP used his parliamentary position to lobby an African government over the award of a lucrative aviation contract to a company in which he is a big shareholder.

Tony Baldry, the Conservative MP for Banbury, Oxfordshire, could now face censure for exploiting his position in the Commons to further his business interests.

The Sunday Times has seen a series of letters sent on Commons notepaper by Baldry to Vice-President Solomon Berewa in Sierra Leone discussing the privatisation of the country’s failed national airline.

He attempts to arrange meetings with Angel Gate Aviation, a British-registered company that is keen to schedule flights from London to Freetown, the capital of the west African state.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,176-1552585,00.html