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A liberal dose of criticism

The NHS reforms could face a rocky ride from the Lib Dem wing of the Coalition when the party’s grassroots get the chance to have their say at its spring conference.

Conservative voters are mostly in favour of the reforms, despite the private concerns of some ministers about the politics of undertaking such a massive and initially expensive overhaul, and are unlikely to rebel.

But a Liberal Democrat parliamentary candidate at the last election, former NHS general manager Charles West, has summed up widespread membership unease by calling the reforms “ enormously disruptive and risky” and by opposing the opening up of parts of the health service to private providers.

The Bill will not fail even if the party’s members rise up as one against it at the conference; if backbench Lib Dem MPs helped defeat the Government, it could lead to the break-up of the Coalition and an election which would see the back of most of them, if current opinion polls are to be believed.

But it would be another unwelcome bout of publicity for the reforms, already struggling under the weight of expert criticism being levelled against them.

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