Conservative MP Steve Brine faces calls to resign from health post amid claims he lobbied the NHS

A senior Conservative MP has been urged to step down from a senior health post after Parliament’s Standards Commissioner launched a sordid inquiry into claims he lobbied the NHS to get paid £200 by a company for hour.

Steve Brine, the Winchester MP, was urged to resign as chairman of the Commons Health Committee during the inquiry into his links to a recruiting firm.

Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards Daniel Greenberg has confirmed that he is looking into allegations that Mr Brine, 49, lobbied the NHS chief on behalf of Remedium.

At the time, in early 2021, the company was paying him £1,600 a month for eight hours of work as a consultant.

The former health minister complained that he had been “trying for months” to persuade the health service to hire anesthetists through the firm, according to The Daily Telegraph.

The details were revealed in the series of leaked WhatsApp messages from former health secretary Matt Hancock published by the newspaper.

Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman Daisy Cooper MP said: “Steve Brine should immediately resign from the Health Committee while this inquiry takes place.”

Liberal Democrat health spokeswoman Daisy Cooper MP said: “Steve Brine should immediately resign from the Health Committee while this inquiry takes place.”

“It is absurd that an MP who may have wrongly lobbied the NHS is now in charge of holding them to account.”

According to the Telegraph, Mr Brine contacted Michael Gove, the then Cabinet Office Minister, in early 2021, amid the pandemic, seeking his help after having tried to raise the issue with the chief executive of England’s NHS, Simon (now Lord) Stevens. .

In a message to Mr Gove, he wrote: ‘Dear Michael…sorry to bring this up, but having tried it with the Department of Health (seemed logical) and the NHSE Chief Executive (ditto), I’m at a loss.

“Simply put, I’ve been trying for months to help the NHS through a company I’m connected to called Remedium.

“They have 50 anesthetists at the moment who can be in the country and on the ground in the NHS if someone said to help us. They just want to help and they asked me how they could do it.

“Despite offering this to health and Simon Stevens, I have had nothing despite the fact that the SS said at the press conference last week that this is a serious problem, despite the fact that the prime minister told the Committee de Enlace that this is his biggest problem, etc., etc.

‘How could I make progress on this or does the NHS just not need the help?’

On February 2, Mr Gove sent the message to Mr Hancock, who replied: “Strange, he hasn’t texted me.” He added a short time later: ‘This is already in hand. Thanks for pinging.

According to the Telegraph, Remedium had been paying Mr Brine £1,600 for eight hours of work every month since July 2020, an arrangement which continued until the end of December 2021.

Under Parliament’s rules, MPs cannot lobby for any organization that pays them for six months after their last pay.

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

Also, under government rules, former ministers are prohibited from using contacts from their time in the government to lobby for two years after leaving office.

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

Brine, the Winchester MP, told the Telegraph: “It was about responding in the national interest to an urgent public call from ministers and the NHS in a national crisis, even if it ultimately led nowhere and a lot least secure any business for Remedium.” .’