Senior Tory ‘lobbied head of NHS for company paying him £1,600 a month’

‘I have been trying for months to help the NHS through a company I am connected with,’ Steve Brine allegedly wrote

(John Phillips/Getty Images for T)

The chairman of the health select committee lobbied the head of the NHS on behalf of a firm paying him £1,600 a month, it has been reported.

At the height of the Covid pandemic, former health minister Steve Brine said he had been “trying for months” to persuade the NHS to hire anaesthetists through Remedium, a recruitment company he worked for, leaked messages show.

Mr Brine allegedly contacted Michael Gove, then Cabinet Office minister, after receiving no response from Simon Stevens, who was chief executive of NHS England, as well as the Department of Health, suggesting they use the company.