Tory MP Steve Brine faces calls to step down from health role amid claims he lobbied the NHS

A senior Tory MP has been urged to quit a senior health post after Parliament’s Standards Commissioner launched a sordid inquiry into claims he lobbied the NHS for a company paying him £200 an hour.

Steve Brine, the Winchester MP, was urged to resign as chairman of the Commons Health Committee during the investigation into his links to a recruitment agency.

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

At that point 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, according to The Daily Telegraph, he had “tried for months” to persuade the health service to hire anaesthesiologists through the company.

The details were revealed in the tranche 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 resign from the health committee immediately while this investigation takes place.

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

In early 2021, in the midst of the pandemic, Mr Brine contacted Michael Gove – the then cabinet minister – seeking his help after trying to raise the matter with NHS England chief Simon, according to the Telegraph (now Lord) Stevens. .

In a message to Mr Gove, he wrote: ‘Dear Michael…sorry to bring this up but after trying the Department of Health (seemed logical) and the Chief Exec of NHSE (ditto) I am at my wits end .

Long story short, I’ve been trying to help the NHS for months through a company I’m associated with – called Remedium.

‘They have 50 anesthetists at the moment who can be in the country and on the ground in the NHS if someone just says let us help. They just wanted to help and asked me how they could.

“Despite presenting this to health and to Simon Stevens, I have had nothing, despite the SS telling the press conference last week that this is an acute problem, despite the Prime Minister telling the liaison committee that this is his biggest problem , etc.

“How can I move forward with this or does the NHS just not need the help?”

On 2 February, Mr Gove forwarded the message to Mr Hancock, who replied ‘Weird – he didn’t text me’. He added a little later: “This is already in hand. Thanks for pinging.”

Since July 2020, Remedium has been paying Mr Brine £1,600 for eight hours of work per month – a scheme that lasted until the end of December 2021, according to the Telegraph.

Under Parliament’s rules, MPs are not allowed to lobby for an organization that pays them for six months after their last remuneration.

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

In addition, government rules prohibit former ministers from using contacts from their time in government to lobby for two years after they leave office.

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

Mr Brine, the MP for Winchester, told the Telegraph: ‘This was about responding in the national interest to an urgent public appeal from ministers and the NHS in a national crisis, even if it ended up going nowhere let alone. ​that business came in for Remedium. .’