Ex-minister told lies about drug firm job

PM BORIS Johnson faces a fresh lobbying scandal after a former health minister apparently broke rules and lied about a £200-anhour role for a drug company.

- MIKEY SMITH

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 by 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 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.