Tory MP Steve Brine faces calls to step down from well being position amid claims he lobbied the NHS

A senior Tory MP has been urged to give up a senior well being position after Parliament’s Standards Commissioner launched a sleaze probe into claims he lobbied the NHS  for a agency paying him £200 an hour.

Steve Brine, the Winchester MP, was urged to step down as chairman of the Commons Health Committee throughout the investigation into his hyperlinks with a recruitment firm.

Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Daniel Greenberg has confirmed he’s trying into allegations that Mr Brine, 49, lobbied the top of the NHS on behalf of Remedium.

At the time in early 2021 the corporate was paying him £1,600 per 30 days for eight hours work as a advisor. 

The former well being minister complained that he had been ‘attempting for months’ to steer the well being service to tackle anaesthetists by way of the agency, based on The Daily Telegraph.

The particulars had been revealed within the tranche of leaked WhatsApp messages from former well being secretary Matt Hancock revealed by the paper.

Liberal Democrat well being spokeswoman Daisy Cooper MP mentioned: ‘Steve Brine ought to instantly step down from the Health Committee while this investigation takes locations. 

Steve Brine, the Winchester MP, was urged to step down as chairman of the Commons Health Committee throughout the investigation into his hyperlinks with a recruitment firm.

Liberal Democrat well being spokeswoman Daisy Cooper MP mentioned: ‘Steve Brine ought to instantly step down from the Health Committee while this investigation takes locations.

‘It is absurd for an MP who might have wrongly lobbied the NHS to now be in control of holding them to account.’ 

According to the Telegraph, Mr Brine contacted Michael Gove – the then Cabinet Office minister – in early 2021, within the midst of the pandemic, in search of his assist after he had tried to lift the difficulty with NHS England chief government Simon (now Lord) Stevens.

In a message to Mr Gove he wrote: ‘Dear Michael … sorry to lift this however having tried the Dept of Health (appeared logical) and the Chief Exec of NHSE (ditto) I’m at a loss.

‘Long story quick, I’ve been attempting for months to assist the NHS by an organization I’m linked with – referred to as Remedium.

‘They have 50 anaesthetists proper now who will be within the nation and on the bottom within the NHS if somebody solely mentioned allow us to assist. They simply need to help and requested me how they could.

‘Despite providing this to well being and to Simon Stevens I’ve had nothing regardless of SS telling the press convention final week that is an acute drawback, regardless of the PM telling the Liaison Committee that is his greatest drawback and many others and many others.

‘How may I progress this or does the NHS simply not want the assistance?’

On February 2, Mr Gove forwarded the message to Mr Hancock who replied: ‘Weird – he hasn’t texted me’. He added a short while later: ‘This is already in hand. Thanks for pinging on’.

According to the Telegraph, Remedium had been paying Mr Brine £1,600 for eight hours’ work every month since July 2020 – an association that continued till the tip of December 2021.

Under Parliament’s guidelines, MPs are usually not allowed to foyer for any organisation they’re being paid by for six months after their final remuneration.

It was a breach of this ban on paid lobbying which led to the resignation of former Tory minister Owen Paterson in 2021.

In addition, underneath Government guidelines former ministers are banned from utilizing contacts from their time in authorities to foyer for 2 years after leaving workplace.

Labour Party chair Anneliese Dodds had referred the matter to the Standards Commissioner.

Mr Brine, the MP for Winchester, informed the Telegraph: ‘This was about responding within the nationwide curiosity to an pressing public name from ministers and the NHS in a nationwide disaster even when, finally, it led nowhere not to mention safe any enterprise for Remedium.’