UK minister Steve Barclay was previously appointed chief of staff by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. He has now replaced Sajid Javid as the health minister, following the former’s resignation along with finance minister Rishi Sunak. 

Barclay served as Lord Commissioner of the Treasury from 2016 to 2017 and Economic Secretary to the Treasury from 2017 to 2018. He was elected in the 2010 general election. He was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care following the 2018 cabinet reshuffle.

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Following Dominic Raab’s resignation, Theresa May named Barclay as Brexit Secretary in November 2018. Boris Johnson reappointed him to the job, and he served until the UK officially exited the EU on January 31, 2020. In the 2020 cabinet upheaval, Barclay was swiftly re-instated as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In the year 2021, he was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office.

Barclay grew up in the Lancashire county of Lancashire. His father was a full-time trade union official who later moved into IT, while his mother was a full-time civil servant administrator. He is the youngest of three brothers, all of whom played rugby at some point in their lives.

Barclay attended King Edward VII Institution in Lytham St Annes, an independent school. He entered the British Army on a Gap Year Commission after finishing his A levels, attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, and served for five months as a Second Lieutenant with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. He was the first in his family to attend university, and he studied history at Peterhouse, Cambridge.

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He went on to Chester College of Law to study law and graduated as a solicitor in 1998. Before working at a royal exchange, Axa Insurance, the Financial Services Authority, and Barclays, Barclay finished his training contract as an articled clerk with a large London law company.

His estimated net worth is at $8 million with his primary income coming from being a politician.

He has a son and a daughter with his wife, Karen.