St Albans MP Anne Main has urged the Government to take the lead in a campaign against the dark underworld of conflict minerals.

Conflict minerals are minerals mined in conditions of armed conflict and human rights abuses, which are then sold on or traded by armed groups. They are often used to build mobile phones, computers and car batteries.

Mrs Main said: “Conflict minerals are something that we all may be using every day, yet very few of us appreciate the scale of the crimes and abuses that have occurred to produce them.

“The minerals used to develop your phone or TV may have come from unimaginable conditions of human rights abuses and child exploitations in central Africa.”

Mrs Main, along with constituents, met with a senior figure in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to discuss what more the UK Government can do.

She said: “Hopefully this will go far to improve the lives and provide protections to those vulnerable people forced to mine these minerals in abhorrent conditions.”