Turmoil as Lib Dems embarrass Clegg on Health Bill

Activists at the party’s spring conference refused to fully back the coalition’s NHS shake-up by voting out a crucial clause in a motion that supported the Bill.

The move means that a key reform of the coalition Government does not have the complete support of one of its parties.

During his keynote conference speech yesterday the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg conceded that the shake-up was controversial and difficult but claimed the “value of the coalition has been proven” because of it.

The Deputy Prime Minister and Sheffield Hallam MP added: “The Health Bill was stopped in its tracks and rewritten because this is a coalition Government.

“Competition will be the servant of health care not the master, because this is a coalition Government. This is a Bill for patients, not profits. It is not a Liberal Democrat Health Bill but it is a better Bill because of the Liberal Democrats.”

However, the passing of a motion that fails to give full Lib Dem party backing is another blow to the Government’s NHS reforms which have already been opposed by the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing, and the Royal College of GPs.

The reforms will see GPs given greater control over NHS budgets while greater competition with the private sector will be encouraged.

Mr Clegg and the party’s leadership were spared a more devastating outcome over the weekend when a debate on an emergency motion calling for the killing of the Health and Social Care Bill was avoided.

Had this succeeded it would have left Mr Clegg pushing through legislation while presiding over a party that was demanding its withdrawal. Instead delegates opted to debate a pro-reform motion which had become known as the Shirley Williams motion.

However, critics of the NHS reform were able to hijack this as members voted for an amendment to remove a crucial line in the motion that called for peers to back the final stages of the Bill.

Although that does not oblige the Lib Dems to oppose the legislation, it demonstrates the widespread discontentment and unease among the party’s grassroots.

Deputy leader Simon Hughes suggested that the NHS reforms had not reached their “final shape”. He said: “I think the conference reflected the mood of the party and the country, to be honest. We want to be reassured. We want to see the final product before we agree to it.”

He added: “It is in the report stage in the Lords; there are further amendments to be debated this week. There are amendments that the party and people like Baroness Williams want to be carried. ”

Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander also indicated there could be further amendments to the Bill in the Lords.

He said that while there was “strong recognition” within the party the Lib Dems had changed the Bill, he admitted there was still a “small majority” of members who wanted to see further amendments.

He added: “The party doesn’t want to stop the Bill but it does want to see our members in the House of Lords continuing to work hard to improve the Bill, to deal with some of the concerns.”

During the debate Julian Tisi, from Windsor, insisted the Bill was a demonstration of “coalition Government at its best” because the current Bill was a “completely different beast” from the original because of the work of Lib Dems.

However, St Ives MP Andrew George insisted the party could not go on “deluding” itself.

“Substantial opposition has still been mounting in spite of these changes. We cannot claim the Bill has been hugely changed. I don’t want to be apologising in years to come,” he added.

Former MP Evan Harris said that despite the “sincere efforts” made in the House of Lords to reform the Bill it still did not contain a block on the wholesale out- sourcing of commissioning work.