Steve Barclay has been named as the health minister of the United Kingdom, following Sajid Javid’s resignation from the post. He was accompanied by finance minister Rishi Sunak, dealing a huge blow to Boris Johnson. 

The UK Prime Minister had earlier named minister Steve Barclay as his new chief of staff.

Stephen Paul Barclay, a British politician who has served as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office since 2021, was born on May 3, 1972. From 2020 to 2021, Barclay was Chief Secretary to the Treasury, and from 2018 to 2020, he was Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union. He has been the Member of Parliament (MP) for North East Cambridgeshire since 2010. He is a Conservative Party member.

From 2016 to 2017, Barclay was Lord Commissioner of the Treasury, and from 2017 to 2018, he was Economic Secretary to the Treasury. He was appointed Minister of State at the Department of Health and Social Care following the 2018 cabinet reshuffle. Following Dominic Raab’s departure, Prime Minister Theresa May named Barclay as Brexit Secretary in November 2018.

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Prime Minister Boris Johnson kept him in the job, and he held it until the United Kingdom officially left the EU on January 31, 2020, when the transition period began. In the 2020 cabinet upheaval, Barclay was swiftly re-instated as Chief Secretary to the Treasury. In the 2021 cabinet reshuffle, he was promoted as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, succeeding Michael Gove.

After graduating from university in 1994, Barclay joined the Conservative Party. He was an A-List member who ran for parliament twice, once in Manchester Blackley in 1997 and again in Lancaster & Wyre in 2001, just missing out on the latter seat by 500 votes.

The Carlton Club political dinner, which raises funds for the Conservative Party’s target seats, was taken over by Barclay in 2007.

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Barclay was chosen in January 2008 to replace outgoing North East Cambridgeshire MP Malcolm Moss, and was elected with a majority of 16,425 votes in the general election of May 2010. Following the election, he was quickly elected by his peers to the Public Accounts Committee, which oversees government spending. He was ranked one of the most conservative people in the country by Conservative Home.

Barclay was named a Lord Commissioner of the Treasury after Theresa May was appointed Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

Barclay joined HM Treasury as Economic Secretary to the Treasury in June 2017.

He became Minister of State for Health in the Department of Health and Social Care in January 2018.

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Following Dominic Raab’s departure, Barclay was appointed Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union in November 2018. According to reports, Barclay will concentrate on domestic preparations rather than Brexit negotiations. In Boris Johnson’s first and second cabinets, he remained the Brexit Secretary. At 11:00 p.m. on January 31, 2020, he stepped down as Brexit Secretary, when the Department for Exiting the European Union was shut down as the UK formally exited the EU.

In February 2020, Barclay was named Chief Secretary to the Treasury, succeeding Rishi Sunak, who had been named Chancellor of the Exchequer following Sajid Javid’s departure.

Barclay was corrected on the number of people who have got the government’s COVID-19 testing by presenter Fiona Bruce on BBC’s Question Time in May 2020.

Barclay succeeded Michael Gove as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office in a cabinet reshuffle on September 15, 2021.