NHS reforms still 'under review' promises Health Secretary after Lib Dems deliver bloody nose to Clegg
Ministers signalled a potential climbdown over the Government’s controversial health reforms last night – after Liberal Democrats delivered Nick Clegg a bloody nose on the issue.
Tory Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said the reforms, which would put GPs in charge of the £80billion NHS commissioning budget, remained ‘under review’ in the wake of criticism from inside and outside Government.
Critics claim the changes will break up the NHS and lead to greater privatisation and less accountability.
Lib Dem activists at the party’s spring conference threw out a motion supporting the Government’s health reforms over the weekend and replaced it with a text that was highly critical of the changes.
The British Medical Association will also debate a series of critical motions on the reforms at an emergency conference later this week – including one expressing no confidence in Mr Lansley.
Many of Mr Lansley’s Tory colleagues are also uneasy about the sweeping changes, which were not in either the party’s manifesto or the Coalition Agreement.
One Tory minister said: ‘We are digging a man trap for ourselves for no good reason. Some of us can see it and are determined to avoid it at all costs.’
Mr Lansley yesterday said reform of the NHS remained essential. But he suggested that the Government could ‘clarify and amend in order to reassure people’.
He added: ‘As you put a Bill through Parliament you look carefully at how the legislation delivers in the context of the reforms that we set out. We’ve already made changes. We are not sitting there thinking we must know all the answers and nothing can change.’
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has said the controversial reforms will remain under review. Critics claim that giving GPs in charge of the NHS budget would lead to greater privatisation
Protests: Crowds gather to protest against the Government cuts outside Sheffield City Hall where the Liberal Democrats spring conference is taking place
Lady in red (tights): Mr Clegg's wife Miriam heads for conference
He added: ‘As you put a Bill through Parliament you look carefully at how the legislation delivers in the context of the reforms that we set out. We’ve already made changes. We are not sitting there thinking we must know all the answers and nothing can change.’
Aides to Mr Clegg also insisted that the reforms were not ‘set in stone’ in the wake of angry protests by Lib Dem activists.
In his keynote speech to the conference yesterday the Deputy Prime Minister said he was determined to avoid anything that smacked of privatisation, declaring: ‘No government of which I am part will tamper with the essential contract at the heart of the NHS – to care collectively for each other as fellow citizens.
‘World-class health care for all, publicly funded, free, centred on patients, not profit. So yes to health reforms. But no – always no – to the privatisation of health.’
Mr Clegg urged his party, which has slumped in the polls since the election, to throw off the ‘comfort blanket of opposition’ and try to claim the centre ground of British politics.
As he delivered his speech, one member of the audience stood out. Mr Clegg’s wife, Miriam, contrasted her conservative grey dress and cardigan with deep pink platform shoes and maroon tights that matched her shade of lipstick.
But other visitors to the conference in Sheffield included the thousands of protesters who turned out over the weekend to demonstrate against Mr Clegg’s decision to join the Coalition – although there were not enough to justify the £2million security operation.
Mr Clegg said everyone had the right to protest and urged his own activists to ‘toughen up’.
Many Lib Dems, including party president Tim Farron, believe they need to try to win back disaffected Labour voters who have supported the party in past elections but deserted it since the formation of the Coalition.
But in yesterday’s speech, which was cleared by David Cameron, Mr Clegg insisted the Lib Dems instead had to focus on attracting votes from Middle England.
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