Tony Baldry

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Tony Baldry MP
Second Church Estates Commissioner
Incumbent
Assumed office
21 June 2011
Prime Minister David Cameron
Preceded by Sir Stuart Bell
Minister of State for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food
In office
5 July 1995 – 1 May 1997
Prime Minister John Major
Preceded by Michael Jack
Succeeded by Jeff Rooker
Member of Parliament
for Banbury
Incumbent
Assumed office
9 June 1983
Preceded by Neil Marten
Majority 18,227 (32.4%)
Personal details
Born 10 July 1950 (1950-07-10) (age 61)
Uxbridge, London, England
Nationality British
Political party Conservative
Spouse(s) Pippa
Children two
Alma mater University of Sussex
Profession Barrister
Website www.tonybaldry.co.uk

Anthony Brian 'Tony' Baldry (born 10 July 1950) is a British Conservative Party politician. He is the Member of Parliament (MP) for Banbury.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Born in 1950, he was educated at Leighton Park School, a Quaker school, and the University of Sussex where he read Law. He became actively involved in student politics and during his time at Sussex, took the Students' Union to the High Court on the grounds that the Students' Union was making "ultra vires" payments out of Student Union funds to various political organisations. Baldry v. Feintuck (1972) 2 All ER 81 for the first time defined the legal status of Students' Unions.[1]

In the February 1974 general election, Baldry was personal assistant to Maurice MacMillan, then Chief Secretary to the Treasury and in the October 1974 general election, he was personal assistant to Margaret Thatcher. When Margaret Thatcher became Leader of the Conservative Party in 1975, Baldry joined her Private Office, mainly to work as the link between Mrs Thatcher and the "Britain in Europe Campaign", the "Yes" Campaign, for the 1975 EU referendum. Baldry was active in the European movement and won the Robert Schumann Silver Medal in 1978 for contributions to Europe. Baldry was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1975 and became a common lawyer. He joined the Oxford and Midlands Circuit. Baldry joined the Sussex Yeomanry whilst at University. He reached the rank of Colonel during his nearly 20 years in the Royal Artillery from 1971. Tony Baldry was first selected as a Parliamentary candidate for the Thurrock constituency for the 1979 general election where he secured one of the largest swings to the Conservative Party.

[edit] Parliamentary career

Following the retirement of veteran Conservative MP Neil Marten who represented Banbury, Baldry successfully contested the seat at the 1983 general election and was elected to Parliament with a majority of 13,025.

From 1985 to 1990, Baldry was a Parliamentary Private Secretary, successively to Lynda Chalker and John Wakeham, who was leader of the House of Commons. In January 1990 Margaret Thatcher made Baldry a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Department of Energy, where he helped John Wakeham privatise the electricity industry.

Baldry is one of the last of those made a Minister by Margaret Thatcher still to be in the House of Commons.

Following the election of John Major as Prime Minister in November 1990, Michael Heseltine asked that Baldry move to the Department for the Environment, where he stayed for four years covering every aspect of the Department's work including housing, planning, Local Government and construction.

In 1994 Baldry moved to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to cover in the House of Commons for Lynda Chalker who was the Minister for Overseas Development but in the House of Lords. As a consequence he spoke for the Government on International Development in the House of Commons.

In 1995 he was promoted to the rank of Minister of State at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food - where he had to grapple with the twin problems of BSE and increasingly unpopular EU fisheries policies, and was a position he held until the fall of the Major government in 1997. His civil servants nicknamed him 'Baldrick'.[2]

On 21 June 2010, he was appointed Second Church Estates Commissioner, with responsibility for answering questions in the House in a manner similar to questions to ministers on the work of the Church Commissioners.,[3][4][5]

In the 2010 general election Baldry was re-elected with an increased majority, of 18,227 votes.[6]

Following the 2010 General Election he became co-chair of the APPG on Agriculture and Food for Development along with Lord Cameron of Dillington, and joined the Ecclesiastical Select Committee.[7]

[edit] International development

Tony Baldry is a member of the Council of the Overseas Development Institute, is the Vice-Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Overseas Development (Apgood),[8] a Trustee of Friends of Africa, which is a UK based charity, and a Trustee of Afghan Action, a UK based charity working in Afghanistan. He was one of eleven MP's to volunteer for the VSO's project PolVol in 2008.[9] He is on the council of governors of Chatham House.[10]

From 2001-2005, Baldry chaired the House of Commons Select Committee on International Development during which time under his chairmanship the Select Committee produced a number of unanimous Reports.

[edit] 2001-02

  • First report: The Humanitarian Crisis in Afghanistan and the surrounding region[11]
  • Second report: The effectiveness of reforms of European Development Assistance[11]
  • Third report: Global Climate Change and Sustainable Development[11]
  • Fourth report: Strategic Export Controls - Licensing Policy and prior Parliamentary Scrutiny[11]
  • Fifth report: Financing for Development: Finding the Money to eliminate World Poverty[11]

[edit] 2002-03

  • First report: Afghanistan: the Transition from Humanitarian Relief to Reconstruction and Development Assistance[12]
  • Third report: the Humanitarian Crisis in Southern Africa[12]
  • Fourth report: Preparing for the Humanitarian consequences of Possible Military Action Against Iraq[12]
  • Fifth report: The Government's Proposals for Secondary Legislation under the Export Controls Act[12]

[edit] 2003-04

  • First report: Trade and Development at the W20: Learning Lessons of Cancun to revive a genuine Development Round[13]
  • Second report: Development Assistance in the Occupied Palestinian Territories[13]
  • Fourth report: Kenya: DFID's Country Assistance PLan 2004-07 and progress towards the Millennium Development Goals[13]
  • Fifth report: Strategic Export Controls - Licensing Policy and Parliamentary Scrutiny[13]
  • Sixth report: Migration and Development: how to make Migration work for Poverty reduction[13]
  • Seventh report: DFID's Agricultural Policy[13]

[edit] 2004-05

  • First report: Commission for Africa and Policy Coherence for Development - First do no harm[14]
  • Third report: DFID's Bilateral Programme of Assistance to India[14]
  • Fourth report: Strategic Export Controls - Licensing Policy and Parliamentary Scrutiny[14]
  • Fifth report: Darfur and Sudan: The "Responsibility to Protect"[14]

Since the summer of 2009, Baldry has chaired the Conservative Party's Commission on Human Rights, during which two reports have been produced:

  • "Those Most Responsible"[15]
  • "Supporting Women Human Rights Defenders"[16]

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Personal loan

On 2 January 1997, Baldry accepted from Sarosh Zaiwalla (a prominent London solicitor), a 5,000 pound personal loan, on which he paid interest.[17]

Baldry gave Lord Feldman (Chairman of the Conservative Party in London at the time) a letter of support for a recommendation of a public honour that Lord Feldman was making on behalf of Sarosh Zaiwalla.[17] It was later held by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards that in that reference or separately, Baldry should have declared that he was at the time a beneficiary of a loan from Sarosh Zaiwalla.[17] Baldry was consequently ordered to apologise to the House over the incident.[18]

[edit] Sierra Leone

In January 2005 Baldry wrote to Hilary Benn, Secretary for International Development, on behalf of Milestone Trading, a British company involved in diamond mining in Sierra Leone.[19] He asked Benn whether his department could endorse the company as conforming to "best practices" in the diamond industry. In his letter to Benn, which was written on House of Commons notepaper, he did not reveal that Milestone had paid $75,000 into a company in which he was a one-third shareholder.[19]

Benn replied that the government "could not endorse an individual company's activities". At the time Baldry was the chairman of the House of Commons International Development Committee. He had also written letters to the President and Vice-President of Sierra Leone on behalf of Milestone in late 2004.[19]

Baldry also sent a series of letters on Angelgate Aviation notepaper from St James's Square (seen by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards) to Sierra Leone Vice President Solomon Berewa on behalf of Angel Gate Aviation, a company that was trying to set up flights between London and Freetown.[19]

In investigating this case, the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards concluded that Baldry should not have used House of Commons notepaper in the letter to Benn.[20]

Baldry consequently made an apology to the House for the use of House stationery,[21] however the Commissioner stated that he found no indication whatsoever, in the course of his inquiry, that Mr Baldry had sought to exploit his position as Chairman of the International Development Committee to further his private interests.[20]

[edit] James Ibori

In September 2009 Baldry, in his capacity as a barrister instructed by the solicitor Sarosh Zaiwalla, wrote a letter to Foreign Secretary David Miliband on behalf of Nigerian governor James Ibori, who was under investigation by Scotland Yard for corruption.[22] The Oxford Mail reported that Mr Baldry had been "paid more than £37,000 for 29 hours work between September and December by Sarosh Zaiwalla, a London-based solicitor who had acted for the Ibori family".[23]

Later that same month, the Independent newspaper printed a correction and an apology over a report in which they had suggested that Tony Baldry had "lobbied" on behalf of James Ibori. The correction clarified that Mr Baldry had not lobbied on Mr Ibori's behalf, and that he had written to the Foreign Secretary in his capacity as a barrister, not as an MP.[24]

[edit] Personal life

Baldry is a practising barrister and Head of Chambers at 1 Essex Court in the Temple, London.[25]

He lives in Bloxham, a village about three miles away from Banbury. He married his second wife in 2001 and has two children from his first marriage.[citation needed]

According to the Register of Member's Interests and on his website, Baldry confirms alongside his Parliamentary duties that he is a Director of Westminster Oil ("development of oil licences and exploration"), West Africa Investments ("investing in infrastructure and natural resource projects in Sierra Leone and elsewhere in West Africa"), Halcyon Oil ("a Hong Kong registered company focusing on oil exploration and discovery projects in Central Asia"). He is a director of Mastermailer Holdings, plc and he is deputy Chair of Woburn Energy plc, a company "specialising in oil exploration and recovery".[26]

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Ultra vires: what it says, what it doesn't say and how to beat it". http://www.free-education.org.uk/ultravires. Retrieved 26 March 2010. [dead link]
  2. ^ Criddle, Byron; Robert Waller (2002). Almanac of British Politics. Routledge. p. 944. ISBN 0415268338. 
  3. ^ Number 10 Press Notice: Second Church Estates Commissioner, 21 June 2010.
  4. ^ Church Times - Interview: Tony Baldry MP, Second Church Estates Commissioner, 2 July 2010
  5. ^ The Church of England: Tony Baldry Second Estates Commissioner
  6. ^ "Baldry re-elected with increased majority". Banbury Guardian. 7 May 2010. http://www.banburyguardian.co.uk/17554/Baldry-reelected-with-increased-majority.6279546.jp. Retrieved 15 June 2010. [dead link]
  7. ^ Tony Baldry, www.parliament.uk
  8. ^ http://www.apgood.org.uk/executive
  9. ^ "Tony Baldry, MP, Nepal - Life changing stories". http://www.vso.org.uk/story/22559/tony-baldry-mp-nepal. Retrieved 27 September 2010. 
  10. ^ "Chatham House - About us - Patron, Presidents, Council and Directors". http://www.chathamhouse.org.uk/about/council/tony_baldry/. Retrieved 27 September 2010. 
  11. ^ a b c d e "International Development Session 2001-02 Reports and Evidence". http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmintdev/cmintdev.htm. Retrieved 1 April 2010. 
  12. ^ a b c d "International Development Session 2002-03 Reports and Evidence". http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmintdev/cmintdev.htm. Retrieved 1 April 2010. 
  13. ^ a b c d e f "International Development Session 2003-04 Reports and Evidence". http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200203/cmselect/cmintdev/cmintdev.htm. Retrieved 1 April 2010. 
  14. ^ a b c d "International Development Session 2004-05 Reports and Evidence". http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200405/cmselect/cmintdev/cmintdev.htm. Retrieved 1 April 2010. 
  15. ^ "Those Who Bear the Greatest Responsibility". http://www.conservativehumanrights.com/reports/CHRC_those_who_bear_the_greatest_responsibility.pdf. Retrieved 1 April 2010. 
  16. ^ "Supporting Women Human Rights Defenders". http://www.conservativehumanrights.com/reports/supporting_women_human_rights_defenders.pdf. Retrieved 1 April 2010. 
  17. ^ a b c "Annex to the Select Committee on Standards and Privileges Eighth Report of Session 1999-2000". http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm199900/cmselect/cmstnprv/369/36906.htm. Retrieved 30 March 2010. 
  18. ^ Schaefer, Sarah (23 March 2000). "Baldry to apologise over loan and CBE recommendation". The Independent. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/baldry-to-apologise-over-loan-and-cbe-recommendation-722941.html. Retrieved 19 March 2010. 
  19. ^ a b c d "Written evidence received by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards". http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmstnprv/421/42105.htm. Retrieved 19 March 2010. 
  20. ^ a b "Overall Conclusion to the Select Committee on Standards and Privileges Third Report of Session 2005-06". http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmstnprv/421/421.pdf. Retrieved 30 March 2010. 
  21. ^ "Baldry in MP conduct code breach". BBC News. 21 July 2005. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4703565.stm. Retrieved 30 March 2010. 
  22. ^ Connett, David; Michael Gillard (15 February 2010). "Tory MP Accused Over Links to Nigerian Politician". The Independent on Sunday. 
  23. ^ "'I'm not corrupt,' MP Tony Baldry says". Oxford Mail. 15 February 2010. http://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/5007091._I_m_not_corrupt___MP_Tony_Baldry_says/. Retrieved 11 March 2010. 
  24. ^ "Tony Baldry MP". Independent. 28 February 2010. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/corrections/tony-baldry-mp-1910971.html. Retrieved 11 March 2010. 
  25. ^ "One Essex Court: The Chambers of Tony Baldry, M.P.". http://www.1ec.co.uk/tony_baldry.html. Retrieved 19 March 2010. 
  26. ^ "Tony Baldry MP, Banbury". They Work For You. 19 March 2010. 

[edit] External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Neil Marten		 Member of Parliament for Banbury
1983–present		 Incumbent
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