Carlton Reid / CC
Steve Brine has been appointed as the government’s new pharmacy minister, the Department of Health (DH) has confirmed.
The 43-year-old will replace David Mowat, who lost his seat in the general election on 8 June.
Brine, the Conservative member of parliament for Winchester & Chandler’s Ford constituency, was appointed parliamentary private secretary to health secretary Jeremy Hunt in May 2015 and also served as an assistant government whip from July 2016 until early June 2017.
The father-of-two has been a Conservative MP since 2010 when he was elected with a majority of 3,000 votes. He increased his majority to nearly 17,000 votes in 2015 but it fell to just below 10,000 in the latest election.
Sandra Gidley, chair of the Royal Pharmaceutical Society English Pharmacy Board, said she hopes to help Brine understand how pharmacists can be part of the solution to the problems facing the NHS.
“I have worked with him on a local political level,” she said. “I look forward to working with him on a national pharmacy agenda.”
