Health Bill survives onslaught from backbench rebels

The move, which would have been an embarrassment to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, was defeated by 314 votes to 260, a majority of 54.

Five Lib Dem backbenchers tabled an amendment to Labour’s opposition day motion on the Health and Social Care Bill calling on the House to “decline to support” the legislation “in its current form” and calling on the Government to hold an “urgent summit” with the royal colleges, professional bodies and patients’ organisations to plan health reforms for England “based on the coalition agreement”.

The move came after Lib Dem activists refused to back the Bill at their spring conference in Gateshead on Sunday.

Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland, one of the Lib Dem signatories, said before last night’s debate that the Government should accept it needed to re-think its reform plan. He added: “Pushing a Bill through in any area, never mind in one so important as the NHS, with so many professional organisations and medical professionals opposed is not a sensible or acceptable way to make policy and it is time to get people round the table and find a different and acceptable way forward.”

Rebel leader Andrew George from St Ives called for the legislation to be dropped and said the amendments the Government had been forced into accepting had made the Bill “less bad but not sufficiently good enough” to be pushed through Parliament.

But despite being backed by the Labour front bench, the amendment was rejected and Labour’s motion to scrap the Bill was also defeated, by 258 votes to 314.

Yesterday’s Commons debate came as the Bill entered its final parliamentary stages amid mounting anger at the scale of the reforms and following hundreds of amendments in the House of Lords.

The Bill faces one further major test in the Lords, at third reading on Monday, before it is sent back to the Commons.

Peers are then expected to vote on whether to delay third reading until after a confidential risk assessment drawn up by civil servants has been published.

Supporters say the shake up will give GPs more control over how NHS money is spent, but critics – including many bodies representing medical staff – fear it will lead to too much focus on competition and greater private sector involvement.

Opening the debate, Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said 177,000 people had signed an e-petition on a Government website demanding Ministers drop the Bill.

“Time is running out for the National Health Service,” he told MPs. “It is now sheer gut loyalty, political pride and the need to save face that are the only forces driving a deeply defective Bill towards the statute book.”