NHS reforms threatened again – will Lords revolt?
The RCN and RCM about-turn on NHS is about pensions, Andrew Lansley says, in less than diplomatic terms. The staff associations say that’s insulting.
The timing certainly plays into the last chance to change the legislation. Much is still happening on the ground to make these reforms happen (The Guardian reports this morning that 253 GP-led commissioning groups are already formed) but the Bill has not yet left the Lords.
It comes back for 5 weeks on 6th February and two thirds of the way through its Lords passage the Lib Dems have their Spring Conference. This was the springboard last year for the Lib Dem uprising that helped to spawn the “NHS policy pause.” Of course, the other political landmark that contributed to the “pause” was the Spring local government elections. They come round again in May yet again.
The Lib Dem whip in the Lords, Lord (David) Shutt is a no-nonsense Yorkshireman who has kept remarkable order in his ranks over the Welfare Bill. He’s got his work cut out now with the remainder of the Welfare Bill, the Legal Aid Bill and the NHS Bill all coming along at the same time in coming weeks. Labour sources mutter of “a dozen or so” possible Lib Dem rebels in the Lords who might just join a carefully crafted ambush but they’re not holding their collective breath. (With the Queen’s Speech expected though not confirmed for 9th May, there’d be time to over-turn Lords rebellions or concede ground to neutralise them after the Lib Dem Spring Conference.)
UPDATE ON BORIS:
I should mention one correction to a midsunderstanding that seems to be out there. Boris Johnson, as far as I know, didn’t talk to the 1922 Committee at all last night about Europe. The quote about how the Eurozone couldn’t keep “bubble-gumming” its operations was in answer to persistent questions from myself and other journalists hovering outside the Commons Committee room afterwards. I pass this on because Boris-watchers will want to know how he played last night and the answer is that he was “pure Boris” but he stuck to London issues and he didn’t cross the road for a fight with the government. He probably would’ve got a guaranteed cheer from some quarters in the room if he had played the Europe card. But he didn’t and, as I mentioned in the blog last night, there was a bit of approving table banging as he got up but stoney silence as he walked in to the room (nearly 10 minutes late). I reckon that was the only Conservative gathering in the country that Boris could walk into without being cheered or mobbed on arrival, which shows how he has a lot of work to do with this particular constituency if he has ambitions to lead his party.
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