Steve Brine breached rules when lobbying ministers in pandemic, watchdog finds

The standards commissioners cleared Steve Brine of paid advocacy because Remedium doctors’ services were offered pro bono. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA

A leading Conservative MP and former health minister did not properly declare his second job for a health recruitment firm when lobbying Matt Hancock and Michael Gove during the pandemic, the standards watchdog has found.

Steve Brine, the chair of the Commons health committee, was found to have breached the rules twice by failing to declare in his approaches to cabinet ministers in early 2021 that he was a paid strategic adviser to Remedium Partners, a recruitment firm offering doctors for free to the NHS.