Steve Barclay reappointed as health and social care secretary

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has reappointed Steve Barclay as health and social care secretary, with Therese Coffey moving to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Mr Barclay was health secretary for a short while upon being appointed by Boris Johnson in July this year, after Sajid Javid resigned. He was succeeded by Dr Coffey when Liz Truss took over as prime minister.

During his time as health and social care secretary, he approved an average 4% pay increase for nurses on Agenda for Change – a wage rise that has triggered industrial action ballots across health unions.

In 2018, Mr Barclay had also served as health minister. He has been considered a Boris Johnson loyalist and was a fervent supporter of the leave campaign.

During his brief first tenure as health secretary, Mr Barclay ordered civil servants to significantly increase overseas recruitment of health and social care staff as he warns that there will be a ‘sprint’ to prepare the health services for winter.

Meanwhile, the new Prime Minister has asked former health and social care secretary Jeremy Hunt to continue in his newly-appointed role as Chancellor.

Mr Hunt took over from Kwasi Kwarteng earlier this month, as part of a bid by short-lived Prime Minister Liz Truss to remain in post despite the catastrophic effects of last month’s tax-cutting mini budget.

Immediately upon his appointment, Mr Hunt reversed almost all tax cuts that had been announced except the reversal of hikes to National Insurance (NI).

A version of this article was originally published by our sister publication Pulse.