Health Committee chair Steve BrineA Tory who was rapped by Westminster's lobbying watchdog over outside jobs with pharma firms has been named chair of the Health Select Committee. The Mirror revealed in January that ex-health minister Steve Brine made £200-an-hour giving 'strategic advice' to drug firm Sigma without first checking with the Advisory Body on Business Appointments (ACOBA). And last February, Mr Brine arranged a meeting between Sigma and then-Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi. Two months later, the firm was awarded a £100,000 government contract to supply Covid-19 tests to pharmacies. Mr Brine claimed to have consulted revolving door watchdog about all of his outside jobs. But an investigation by the Sunday Mirror discovered he had not consulted them over a £1,600 role giving "strategic advice" to Sigma pharmaceuticals until after he took the job - an apparent breach of the ministerial code. Both the firm and Mr Brine denied he acted as a lobbyist, and insist he played no role in the deal. ( R&A via Getty Images) But ACOBA chair Lord Pickles, said there was a "reasonable concern" that his contact with Mr Zahawi was "only made available to Sigma as a direct result of Mr Brine's time as a minister at the Department for Health and Social Care" He added: "I do not consider it was in-keeping with the letter or the spirit of the government's rules for former ministers for a former minister at DHSC to contact a minister with responsibilities for health on behalf of a pharmaceutical company which pays him." Mr Brine quit all of his second jobs - worth a combined £38,000 a year - after the Sunday Mirror revealed his apparent rulebreaking. ACOBA chair Lord Pickles ( ExpressStar) Mr Brine was today elected chair of the Health Select Committee - a vacancy left by){kind=link}
The Mirror revealed in January that ex-health minister Steve Brine made £200-an-hour giving ‘strategic advice’ to drug firm Sigma without first checking with the Advisory Body on Business Appointments (ACOBA)
A Tory who was rapped by Westminster’s lobbying watchdog over outside jobs with pharma firms has been named chair of the Health Select Committee.
The Mirror revealed in January that ex-health minister Steve Brine made £200-an-hour giving ‘strategic advice’ to drug firm Sigma without first checking with the Advisory Body on Business Appointments (ACOBA).
And last February, Mr Brine arranged a meeting between Sigma and then-Vaccines minister Nadhim Zahawi.
Two months later, the firm was awarded a £100,000 government contract to supply Covid-19 tests to pharmacies.