Labour in last-gasp attempt to scupper Health Bill

Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham secured the debate in an attempt to delay the passage of the Health and Social Care Bill, which passed its final tests in the House of Lords last night.

A bid by SDP founder, now independent crossbencher, Lord Owen to delay third reading of the Health and Social Care Bill was rejected by 328 votes to 213, Government majority 115, while a Labour attempt to block it failed by 269 votes to 174, majority 95.

Lord Owen wanted the delay to allow time to consider the reasons for publishing a confidential risk assessment of the reforms and the Government’s response.

He warned Ministers: “You have no mandate for this Bill. You specifically went to the electorate and said there would be no top down reorganisation of the NHS. That is considered by a lot of people outside this House to be a flagrant lie.”

But Health Minister Earl Howe said a delay would put into “serious jeopardy” work done by peers in changing the Bill over weeks of detailed scrutiny.

“Delay would be wrong and wholly unwarranted,” he insisted. “The NHS needs certainty – the certainty of the Bill being on the statute book.”

Later, in another rarely-used procedural manoeuvre, Labour was attempting to block the Bill’s third reading and passage back to the Commons for consideration of Lords amendments.

An amendment put down by the Opposition urged peers not to allow the Bill to pass because it would “lead to the fragmentation and marketisation of the NHS and threaten its ethos and purpose”.

The British Medical Association (BMA) had earlier urged the peers to take steps to block the passage of the Bill.

Liberal Democrat Lord Greaves said he was going to vote against the Government and for the amendment. “It is undoubtedly a radical top-down restructuring in direct contradiction of the coalition agreement I signed up to.”

Lord Greaves warned the Government was “out of step” with opinion in the country and the NHS over the changes but Lord Howe said he was disappointed by the “negative tone and content” of Labour’s amendment after 25 days of scrutiny of the legislation in the Lords, during which he had moved or accepted 375 amendments from all sides.

“We have made a Bill whose key principles command wide acceptance – more joined-up, more clear and in certain aspects less risky.”

Today’s Commons debate could allow MPs to delay the Bill’s progress until the Government publishes an internal assessment of the risks posed by the reforms to the NHS in England.