Robin Swann to step down as Northern Ireland’s health minister

Robin Swann has announced that he will step down as health minister in Northern Ireland when a general election is called, in order to pursue a seat in Westminster.

Mr Swann is currently the Ulster Unionist Party’s (UUP) candidate in South Antrim and is hoping to take the Westminster seat from the Democratic Unionist Party MP Paul Girvan in the next election.

Politicians in Northern Ireland have been banned from “double-jobbing” – holding seats in both Stormont and Westminster – since 2016.

“We need a voice in Westminster who actually understands Northern Ireland health”

Robin Swann

As a result, to try and achieve his ambition, Mr Swann has confirmed that he will step down as Northern Ireland health minister and leave the country’s executive once the general election campaign begins.

He told BBC’s Sunday Politics Northern Ireland that, while he was committed to his current role, he would not stay until polling day.

Mr Swann said: “My intention wouldn’t be to stay right up to polling day because ‘purdah’ will kick in and there will be other stages as well.

“So that decision will be made  long before the election day is called, it’ll be something that’ll be made by my party leader.”

While a date for the general election is yet to be confirmed, the prime minister has indicated that it will be held some time later this year.

Mr Swann said it would “not be fair” to continue as health minister during the election campaign.

He added that it would be “rational” for his UUP party colleague, Mike Nesbitt, to replace him. Mr Nesbitt was recently appointed as the private secretary to Mr Swann and is due to start in the role soon.

Mr Swann was reappointed as Northern Ireland’s health minister in February, after the assembly and executive were re-established and power-sharing in the country was restored.

He previously held the position between January 2020 and October 2022, supporting the country through the Covid-19 pandemic.

Following his reappointment, Mr Swann warned that Health and Social Care (HSC) services in Northern Ireland were under immense pressure, facing chronic workforce shortages and under financial strain.

He has since unveiled a series of plans and measures to try and redress some of the pressures that services are facing.

For example, his reappointment prompted nurses and other HSC staff to be given a pay offer for 2023-24, following severe delays. Though not accepted by all unions, the deal is set to be implemented.

Meanwhile,  Mr Swann has also unveiled proposals that involve using specialist nursing roles as a key solution to tackling Northern Ireland’s growing waiting list.

However, other plans in the pipeline for HSC services have had to be put on hold due to budgetary pressures, including proposals for free hospital parking in Northern Ireland.

Despite his intention to fight for a seat in Westminster, Mr Swann told the BBC that being health minister remained his priority for now.

He said: “Being health minister is my priority. I wouldn’t have gone back into the post if it wasn’t in regard to what I want to do, what I see that we can do.”

Mr Swann said Northern Ireland needed an MP in Westminster who had experience of the biggest issues facing health in the country.

“We need a voice in Westminster who actually understands Northern Ireland health, and who can make that representation for the best case that we can make,” he added.