STEVE Barclay has become England's new health secretary, Whitehall sources said.

The news comes after Sajid Javid resigned from the role on Tuesday evening.

On Tuesday, Rishi Sunak also resigned from his position as Chancellor, followed by six MPs.

Barclay moves to the new role after taking on the position of Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in September last year.

Health is a devolved area, meaning the UK Government's health secretary is responsible only for England.

Who is new health secretary Steve Barclay?

After the 2017 election, Barclay was promoted to City minister by Theresa May, the prime minister at the time.

Spending just six months in the Treasury, he then went on to be promoted again to minister of state at the Department of Health and Social Care.

Steve Barclay has also been a Brexit secretary, his first role in Cabinet, before moving onto chief secretary to the Treasury in February 2020 and then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in September 2021.

He's the youngest of three brothers and he describes himself as coming from a “working class Northern background” in Lancashire.

He's married and a father to two children.

Sajid Javid and Rishi Sunak resign from health secretary and Chancellor roles

The double resignation comes as Boris Johnson was forced to apologise over his handling of the Chris Pincher row after it emerged he had forgotten about being told of previous allegations of “inappropriate” conduct.

Mr Pincher quit as deputy chief whip last week following claims that he groped two men at a private members’ club, but Mr Johnson was told about allegations against him as far back as 2019.

Boris Johnson admitted “it was a mistake” to give scandal-hit former deputy chief whip Chris Pincher his government role and said: “I apologise for it.”

See the full list of the MPs that have resigned so far this evening in our explainer here.