Boris Johnson faces a fresh lobbying scandal after a former health minister apparently broke second jobs rules and lied about a £200-an-hour role with a drug company.
The firm was later handed a Covid-19 testing contract worth £100,000.
Winchester MP Stephen Brine started raking in £1,600 a month giving “strategic advice” to Sigma pharmaceuticals, just months after quitting as Public Health Minister in March 2019.
Mr Brine repeatedly claimed on the public Register of Members’ Interests that he’d been given the green-light to take the job from Parliament’s revolving door watchdog.
But the Sunday Mirror can reveal he broke the Ministerial Code by not consulting them until after he had brazenly started working for the multi-million pound firm.
Mr Johnson still faces party infighting and plunging poll numbers over his botched response to the Owen Paterson lobbying scandal.
Mr Brine quietly quit his job at Sigma on November 22, after the Prime Minister vowed to ban MPs from “exploiting their positions” with consultancy jobs.
Former Ministers have to consult jobs watchdog the Advisory Body on Business Appointments (ACOBA) before taking any job within two years of leaving government.
Not another Health Minister scandal … 