New Health Secretary, Steve Barclay, is 'working class' bloke from Lancashire

It comes as the Prime Minister is battling to remain in No 10 as his handling of the row over scandal-hit former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher prompted the departures of Mr Javid and Chancellor Rishi Sunak, with both writing damning resignation letters.

A total of 15 Tories have now resigned from their posts, with a handful of others expressing they have lost confidence in Johnson, as his premiership hangs by a thread.

Steve Barclay, the new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, who is from Lancashire, currently serves as the PM's chief of staff and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and has also previously served as a Brexit secretary.

His replacement in his existing roles has yet to be confirmed.

Boris Johnson lost his Chancellor and Health Secretary on Tuesday, followed by more resignations last night and this morning

Labour greeted Mr Barclay’s appointment to the helm of the Health and Social Care Department by congratulating him as “the shortest serving Health Secretary in history”.

Steve Barclay, who is MP for North East Cambridgeshire, said it was “an honour” to take on the role.

He said: “Our NHS and social care staff have showed us time and again – throughout the pandemic and beyond – what it means to work with compassion and dedication to transform lives.

“This government is investing more than ever before in our NHS and care services to beat the Covid backlogs, recruit 50,000 more nurses, reform social care and ensure patients across the country can access the care they need.”

Mr Barclay was handed the chief of staff role in February as part of a shake-up of No 10 in response to the partygate scandal.

Sajid Javid quit as Health Secretary through a scathing resignation letter

It came as Mr Johnson promised a “reset” in No 10 after he was left wounded following a swathe of resignations from among his aides and longer-term concerns over the cost of living, sleaze allegations and the general running of the Downing Street operation.

After a relatively slow start to his ministerial career, Mr Barclay – a Leave supporter – was catapulted to the Cabinet front rank as Brexit Secretary in November 2018.

The son of a trade union official father and a civil servant mother, he has previously described himself as coming from a “working class Northern background” in Lytham, Lancashire.

He attended the independent King Edward VII School - now known as AKS Lytham where schooling costs more than £4,000 a term.

The youngest of three brothers, he came from the first generation of his family to go to university, reading history at Peterhouse College, Cambridge, after spending a gap year serving in the Army with the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

AKS Lytham, the £4,000 a term private school attended by 'working class' Steve Barclay. Pic: Google Street View

After training as a lawyer, the married father of two, worked as regulator for the Financial Services Authority and head of anti-money laundering at Barclays Bank before embarking on a political career.

Picked for David Cameron’s “A-list” of favoured candidates, he finally won the seat of North East Cambridgeshire in the 2010 general election having twice stood unsuccessfully for parliament.

Despite his record as a government loyalist, he had to wait until after the following election in 2015 before he made it to the ministerial ranks as a junior whip.

Instead he spent the coalition years building a reputation as a tough and effective interrogator of officials as a member of the Commons Public Accounts Committee.

During the EU referendum in 2016, he supported the official Vote Leave campaign, after ministers were given the freedom to campaign for either side.

Following the 2017 election, he was finally promoted out of the whips’ office by then-prime minister Theresa May who made him her new City minister.

His financial background made him an obvious choice at a time when foreign competitors were looking to take advantage of Brexit to take away business from the Square Mile.

Nevertheless, he served only six months in the Treasury before he was promoted again to minister of state at the Department of Health and Social Care.

After his first Cabinet role as Brexit Secretary, he moved to become chief secretary to the Treasury in February 2020, and was appointed Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in September 2021.