Lib Dem defies Cameron to call for Lansley to lose Cabinet job

The Prime Minister used an article to insist he was “at one” with Mr Lansley and backed the controversial NHS reforms going through parliament.

A series of senior Tories were also deployed to television studios to shore up the Cabinet Minister’s position.

However, Lib Dem deputy leader Simon Hughes broke ranks to say Mr Lansley should be shifted from his post.

“My political judgment is that in the second half of the parliament it would be better to move on,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr programme.

A source close to Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg stressed that Mr Hughes had been expressing a personal opinion.

Several Conservative Cabinet Ministers are said to have privately criticised Mr Lansley’s handling of the Health and Social Care Bill, with one suggesting the Government’s problems were now on the scale of the Poll Tax in the 1980s.

A Downing Street source was also quoted last week saying that the Health Secretary should be “taken out and shot”.

However, writing in a Sunday newspaper, Mr Cameron stressed that there was no alternative to reform.

The Prime Minister – whose disabled son Ivan died in 2009 – said: “As a parent, night after night, I’ve known what it is to have the NHS by your side... but while the values are right, the system isn’t. It needs to change – and that is why I am at one with Andrew Lansley, the reform programme and the legislation going through Parliament.”

Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt dismissed the prospect of Mr Lansley being axed, insisting he would be seen as the “architect of the modern NHS” in the future.

“The first thing I want to say is that Andrew Lansley is absolutely the right person for this job,” he told Andrew Marr.

“Andrew Lansley is a decent man, passionate about the NHS and he knows what he is doing.”

He added: “It is completely wrong to make a judgment about someone when they are right in the middle of the storm.”

Communities Secretary Eric Pickles was pressed on Sky News’ Murnaghan programme over whether he was one of the Cabinet Ministers who had criticised the shake-up. “I would like to know who is even vaguely suggesting that,” he replied.

“I have been very supportive of these measures, particularly as it enhances the role of local government.”

Challenged to condemn Ministers who had briefed against Mr Lansley, Mr Pickles said: “I sit in a Cabinet that is united in wanting to see these reforms through.”

He insisted Mr Lansley should “absolutely” stay as Health Secretary. “I am sorry that is Simon’s (Hughes) view, but Andrew has taken this Bill through. Andrew is very committed to the health service,” Mr Pickles said.

When asked directly whether Mr Lansley should be moved from his job, Mr Hughes responded: “Yes.”

He said the many amendments that had already been accepted to the legislation had improved it.

“If the Lords do all the changes, for example making the Secretary of State fully accountable to Parliament, I think it will have got it in better shape,” Mr Hughes said. “It is not the Bill we would have wanted.”

Concessions from the Government have failed to quell opposition from professional bodies such as the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing.

The legislation has already suffered one defeat since reaching the Lords.