The Conservative Health Secretary has a significant stake in the Covid testing company | Tories

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The Conservative health minister has a significant financial stake in a private health screening and Covid testing company, which raises questions about possible conflicts of interest.

Nick Markham, a businessman who was brought to the peerage under Liz Truss and appointed to the Department of Health, owns about 30% of Cignpost’s investments and has done so within his first four months in business.

The company was established during the pandemic period to provide Covid screening and health screening services to the private sector. Markham’s bio for the Department of Health website does not mention an interest in the private health sector, although he describes his previous jobs in the private sector at ITV and TopUp TV and as a founder of a charity.

Markham was appointed health secretary in September and announced Cignpost’s investment in his register of interests in the House of Lords. Ministerial interests are supposed to be overseen by an independent adviser, but the post has been vacant for the six months since Lord Geidt’s resignation under Boris Johnson.

Labor and the Liberal Democrats said it was not appropriate for a government minister to own such a stake.

Angela Rayner, deputy leader of the Labor Party and Shadow Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, said: “Close friends of the Conservatives have been rewarded with peers and plum ministerial jobs while keeping lucrative interests intact. There is a rotten stench around the revolving door the Tories have left wide open. Labor will clean up policy by restoring standards in public life through an independent Ethics and Integrity Commission.”

“These interests are not only inappropriate, but completely unethical,” said Sal Brinton, Liberal Democrat health spokesman in the House of Lords.

The rules state that ministers must remove any conflict of interest to prevent any influence on their judgment and to maintain public confidence. Our Minister must be held to the highest standards, but these decline with each new appointment.

“Lord Markham should get rid of these interests and Rishi Sunak should immediately appoint a new moral advisor.”

Cignpost did not win any government contracts during the pandemic but expanded its business as a result of a policy of requiring people to take the test regularly and of moving from free to paid testing.

Its subsidiary, Cignpost Diagnostics, made a pre-tax profit of around £15m on revenues of £49m in the year to March 2021, its first nine months of operation.

Markham also owns stakes in a family investment firm and management consulting firm, according to his history of interests.

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The Department of Health and Social Care had no comment when asked what was being done to mitigate the risk of conflicts of interest. However, Markham is understood to have told management that he is now in the process of divestment of his stake. He resigned as director when he became minister in September.

Markham’s health stake is the latest in a series of cases in which ministers have been appointed despite direct financial interests related to their jobs, contrary to historical precedent.

Jacob Rees-Mogg was allowed to keep his stake in Somerset Capital Management, the asset manager, when he was business secretary and Chris Philp was allowed to keep a significant stake in a real estate finance group and a role as a director of an investment firm. At that time, Philip was Chancellor of the Exchequer and responsible for spending policy in relation to housing and planning.

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