10.02.11
Conservative criticism of controversial Bill
New criticism has been launched against the Health and Social Care Bill, suggesting that legislation could cost the Conservative Party the next election, due to failure to win public support.
Writing on the Tory grassroots website ‘ConservativeHome’, editor Tim Montgomerie claimed that he was contacted by three Conservative cabinet ministers with concerns for the reforms.
Montgomerie suggested that the changes needed to improve efficiency in the NHS could be achieved without the Bill and that while scrapping it now would be ‘embarrassing in the short run’, it would save public support for the Party.
The Government made 136 amendments to the Bill, but on its return to the House of Lords yesterday, opponents were still calling for change. The Lords voted for mental health to be made a higher priority, although Government suggested this was largely symbolic.
Montgomerie claimed that the reforms could mean all future problems would be blamed on this Bill. He adds that this blame would be “a heavy price to pay for a bill that is neither transformational nor necessary.”
Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: “It’s a shock to find out that even senior members of his own Cabinet have to take to a Conservative website to get through to him about the damage he is doing to the NHS.
“It couldn’t be clearer: this is an out-of-touch Prime Minister who is putting his political pride before the best interests of the NHS. David Cameron promised to protect the NHS but every day he digs in behind his Bill, he damages it further.”
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