Steve Brine on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
Steve Brine (born 28 January 1974) is a British politician who has served as the
Member of Parliament
A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members o ...
(MP) for
Winchester since
2010. A member of the
Conservative Party, he worked as a BBC radio journalist and in public relations prior to his political career. Brine identifies as a
one-nation conservative. In November 2022, he was elected chair of the
Health and Social Care Select Committee
The Health and Social Care Select Committee (abbreviated to HSC, HSCC and HSCSC) is a Departmental Select Committee of the British House of Commons, the lower house of the United Kingdom Parliament. Its remit is to examine the policy, administra ...
.
He served as
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Public Health and Primary Care at the Department of Health from June 2017 to March 2019, when Brine resigned to vote against the government's policy on
Brexit
Brexit (; a portmanteau of "British exit") was the withdrawal of the United Kingdom (UK) from the European Union (EU) at 23:00 GMT on 31 January 2020 (00:00 1 February 2020 CET).The UK also left the European Atomic Energy Community (EAEC ...
. Brine had the Conservative
whip removed on 3 September by Prime Minister
Boris Johnson
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (; born 19 June 1964) is a British politician, writer and journalist who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as F ...
for supporting the
Benn Act, an attempt to prevent a
no-deal Brexit
A no-deal Brexit (also called clean break BrexitBBC. (2019)''Brexit: Jargon-busting guide to the key terms'' (BBC) Retrieved 29 March 2019.) was the potential withdrawal of the UK from the European Union (EU) without a withdrawa ...
. He sat for over a month as an
independent politician
An independent or non-partisan politician is a politician not affiliated with any political party or bureaucratic association. There are numerous reasons why someone may stand for office as an independent.
Some politicians have political views th ...
before being readmitted to the party on 29 October 2019.
Early life and career
Brine was born on 28 January 1974 to Clive Charles and Gloria Elizabeth Brine.
[ He has a sister called Tracey.]Royal Surrey County Hospital
The Royal Surrey County Hospital (RSCH) is a 520-bed District General Hospital, located on the fringe of Guildford, run by the Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust.
History
The hospital has its origins in a facility at Farnham Road which opened ...
. He studied history at Liverpool Hope University
, mottoeng=Hope to all who need it
, established=1844 – Saint Katharine's College (as Warrington Training College)1856 – Notre Dame College (as Our Lady's Training College)1964 – Christ's College1979 – Liverpool Institute of Higher Edu ...
, where he also served a sabbatical year as president of its students' union.
After graduating, Brine worked as a radio journalist for the BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
. His first job was at
BBC Southern Counties Radio
BBC Southern Counties Radio was a BBC Local Radio service for the English counties of Surrey and Sussex. The station also covered a large part of north-east Hampshire. It was the first BBC local radio station to introduce an all-speech format. ...
in
Guildford. He also did an internship in Chicago with the radio station
WGN. Brine later worked as a director of the golf marketing agency Azalea Group.
Political career
Brine worked in the
Conservative Central Office
The Conservative Campaign Headquarters (CCHQ), formerly known as Conservative Central Office (CCO), is the headquarters of the British Conservative Party, housing its central staff and committee members, including campaign coordinators and man ...
as a researcher during
William Hague
William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...
's leadership, and was the campaign director for the party in Hampshire during the 2001−2005 parliament. He was selected as the party's
prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for
Winchester in November 2006. Brine was a member of the party's
A-List
An A-list actor is a major movie star, or one of the most bankable actors in a film industry.
The A-list is part of a larger guide called ''The Hot List'', which ranks the bankability of 1,400 movie actors worldwide, and has become an industry ...
.
He was elected as MP for Winchester in the 2010 general election with a majority of 3,048 (5.4%) votes. The seat had previously been held by the Liberal Democrat MP
Mark Oaten
Mark Oaten (born 8 March 1964) is a British politician who was a senior member of the Liberal Democrats. He served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Winchester from 1997 to 2010.
Born in Watford, Hertfordshire, Oaten became a councillor in ...
since the 1997 general election, who had stood down prior to the 2010 general election. During the 2010−2015 parliament, he was a member of the
Justice Select Committee
The Justice Select Committee of the United Kingdom is a select committee of the House of Commons which scrutinizes the policy, administration, and spending of the Ministry of Justice. In addition, the committee examines the work of the Law Offi ...
.
Brine was one of 136 Conservative MPs who voted against the
Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013
The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013 (c. 30) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which introduced same-sex marriage in England and Wales.
Background
Civil partnerships were introduced in the United Kingdom in 2004, allowin ...
, which legalised same-sex marriage in England and Wales. His reasons for voting against the Act included that he felt that the bill had been rushed, he alleged that the majority of his constituents opposed it, and his Christian faith. In the same year, he was appointed as
parliamentary private secretary (PPS) to
Mike Penning
Sir Michael Alan Penning (born 28 September 1957) is a British Conservative Party politician, who has served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Hemel Hempstead since 2005.
Penning was the Minister of State for the Armed Forces from 2016 to 20 ...
, Minister of State at the Department for Work & Pensions and Minister for Disabled People. In July 2014, Brine became PPS to Penning in his new role as Minister of State for Policing within the Ministry of Justice.
He was re-elected in the 2015 and 2017 general election.
In May 2015, Brine became PPS to
Jeremy Hunt
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (born 1 November 1966) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 14 October 2022. He previously served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport ...
, Secretary of State for Health. Following the appointment of
Theresa May
Theresa Mary May, Lady May (; née Brasier; born 1 October 1956) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 2016 to 2019. She previously served in David Cameron's cabi ...
as the prime minister in July 2016, he was appointed as assistant government whip at HM Treasury, a role he held till June 2017 when he was promoted to
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Public Health and Primary Care at the Department of Health.
Brine supported the UK remaining within the EU in the
2016 UK EU membership referendum. He voted for then Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit withdrawal agreement in early 2019. In the indicative votes on 27 March, Brine voted for single market membership, customs union with the EU, the
Norway-plus model, and against a
no-deal Brexit
A no-deal Brexit (also called clean break BrexitBBC. (2019)''Brexit: Jargon-busting guide to the key terms'' (BBC) Retrieved 29 March 2019.) was the potential withdrawal of the UK from the European Union (EU) without a withdrawa ...
. He had resigned from his ministerial post two days prior. Brine supported Jeremy Hunt in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election. He voted for the legalisation of same-sex marriage in Northern Ireland.
In September 2019, he was one of 21 MPs
expelled from the Conservative Party for voting for the
European Union (Withdrawal) (No. 2) Act 2019 which aimed to prevent a no-deal Brexit. Brine was one of 10 MPs to be readmitted to the party on 29 October. He was re-elected in the 2019 general election, with his majority falling from 9,999 to 985.
[
Brine was one of 38 MPs to vote against the second national lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic in November 2020. He called for MPs and their staff to be prioritised for the COVID-19 vaccine in January 2021 and for all COVID-19 legislative restrictions to be removed by the end of April 2021.
Following the publication of the Sue Gray report into the ]Partygate
Partygate was a political scandal in the United Kingdom about parties and other gatherings of government and Conservative Party staff held during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, when public health restrictions prohibited most gather ...
scandal, Brine submitted a letter of no confidence in Prime Minister Johnson calling for his resignation in May 2022. He initially endorsed Jeremy Hunt
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (born 1 November 1966) is a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Exchequer since 14 October 2022. He previously served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport ...
in the July 2022 Conservative Party leadership election but when Hunt was eliminated from the contest he endorsed Rishi Sunak.
In November 2022, he was selected by fellow MPs to be the chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee
The Health and Social Care Select Committee (abbreviated to HSC, HSCC and HSCSC) is a Departmental Select Committee of the British House of Commons, the lower house of the United Kingdom Parliament. Its remit is to examine the policy, administra ...
. After being appointed, Brine said his priorities as chair were to get "better value for our money" from the NHS and improving young people's mental health care.
Lobbying
Outside of his parliamentary role, he was also a strategic advisor for the pharmaceuticals company Sigma, healthcare recruitment firm Remedium Partners, and assistive technology company Microlink PC. He ended his involvement with these companies at the end of 2021 following then Prime Minister Boris Johnson's suggestion that he would ban MPs from having consultancy jobs following the Owen Patterson lobbying scandal.[ In January 2022, Brine was criticised for breaching lobbying rules by ]Eric Pickles
Eric Jack Pickles, Baron Pickles, (born 20 April 1952) is a British Conservative Party politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Brentwood and Ongar from 1992 to 2017. He served in David Cameron's Cabinet as Secretary of State for ...
, the chair of the anti-corruption watchdog Advisory Committee on Business Appointments
The Advisory Committee on Business Appointments (ACOBA) is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom, which was set up in 1975 to provide advice on applications from the most senior Crown servants who wish to take up outside appointments ...
(ACOBA) for starting his role at Sigma before informing ACOBA of his appointment. He apologised for "a mistake" and blamed "poor admin" on his part. Pickles also criticised him for contacting the then Vaccines Minister Nadhim Zahawi
Nadhim Zahawi ( ar, ناظم الزهاوي, translit=Nāẓim az-Zahāwī; ku, نەدیم زەهاوی, translit=Nedîm Zehawî; born 2 June 1967) is an Iraqi-born British politician serving as Chairman of the Conservative Party and Minister ...
. He stated, "I do not consider it was in keeping with the letter or the spirit of the government's Rules for a former minister at DHSC to contact a minister with responsibilities for health on behalf of a pharmaceutical company which pays him." Brine had attended a meeting with Sigma executives and Zahawi in February 2021.
Personal life
Brine married Susie Toulson in 2003. She is a former speech and language therapist
Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are th ...
and works in early years.[ Susie is one of the daughters of the late Lord Toulson, a former Supreme Court judge. They have one daughter born in 2007 and one son born in 2010.]
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brine, Steve
1974 births
Living people
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
Independent members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom
UK MPs 2010–2015
Politics of Winchester
Alumni of Liverpool Hope University
Politicians from Portsmouth
UK MPs 2015–2017
UK MPs 2017–2019
BBC newsreaders and journalists
UK MPs 2019–present