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Exclusive: Former Conservative pharmacy minister Steve Brine has said the failure of Labour's two pharmacist MPs to vote in favour of exempting the sector from a rise in employers' national insurance undermines their ability to represent it.

In an upcoming interview with P3pharmacy, Mr Brine - who served as pharmacy minister from June 2017 to March 2019 and has since maintained ties with the sector - says that pharmacist MPs Taiwo Owatemi and Sadik Al-Hassan should have defied their party and voted  in favour of a Liberal Democrat amendment exempting the sector from the tax increase.

“If you seek to represent pharmacy in parliament you really have to vote [that way],” says Mr Brine, who in addition to serving as pharmacy minister chaired the parliamentary health select committee from 2022 until standing down as MP for Winchester ahead of the 2024 general election.

He adds: “It’s not about what you say in parliament, it’s about what you do. Those who now seek to represent pharmacy in parliament need to vote that way because the next rise is going to hurt.”

Rejecting the Labour argument that offering exemptions to certain employers risked undermining the principles of taxation, Mr Brine replies: “In a finance bill, anything can be done."

At the beginning of April, employers' national insurance contributions rose by 1.2 per cent to 15 per cent while the threshold for paying them dropped from £9,100 to £5,000 a year.

On March 19, Mr Al-Hassan and Ms Owatemi joined their Labour colleagues in voting down the exemption, which had been passed with an overwhelming majority in the House of Lords. 

The March 19 vote resulted in the Lib Dem peer Elizabeth Barker's amendement being defeated by 125 votes.

Speaking to P3pharmacy before the Commons vote on the Lib Dem amendment, Mr Al-Hassan said he planned to vote with the Government but hoped the new contractual settlement would include relief measures directly aimed at helping employers should the cost rises - something the 2025-26 deal failed to do. 

Mr Al-Hassan commented: “It would be personally a very difficult vote for me. I think I’d be able to vote against it if I knew the settlement was going to include that money.” 

Asked about his own decision to vote with the Conservative whip against a Labour Opposition Day motion in November 2016 opposing huge cuts to the sector’s funding, Mr Brine replies: “I didn’t represent the sector in November 2016. 

“And of course, Opposition Days are partisan political knockabout - whereas a finance bill when you’re in government changes the law.”

The full interview with Steve Brine is published in the May edition of P3pharmacy.