Liberal Democrat leaders block delegate changes to NHS bill

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Liberal Democrat leaders block delegate changes to NHS bill

Deputy leader Simon Hughes moves against critics 'shopping list' of demands ahead of legislation debated in the Lords

Liberal Democrat leaders have blocked a move at the party conference to allow activists to draw up further amendments to the government's NHS reforms, ahead of the legislation being debated in the Lords.

Critics of the party leadership used the opening afternoon of the annual conference in Birmingham to try and overturn a decision to deny delegates a vote on any specific motion regarding the health and social care bill, claiming the move was at odds with the their democratic tradition.

Some activists want a vote on a motion that would give Lib Dem peers a mandate to resist parts of the bill. But officials said the Federal Conference Committee (FCC) had ruled the issue was not an emergency, and policy had been established at the spring conference last March.

Deputy party leader Simon Hughes said the FCC did not want to "micro-manage government policy" by allowing party members to issue a new "shopping list" of demands.

Despite significant support from delegates, the move failed to secure the two-thirds majority needed to overturn the decision.

But David Hall-Matthews, chair of the Social Liberal Forum, told delegates: "We're not here to have a chat, we're here to make policy.

"Don't let people tell you that this issue was dealt with in March. Are we seriously saying that an amendment to a motion is the party's only and final word on health policy?"

He said allowing the conference to back a policy motion would give Lib Dem peers including Baroness Williams a stronger voice in the Lords.

He said: "This ? will give more power to Shirley Williams's elbow when [the health secretary Andrew] Lansley's bill goes through the Lords."

The outcome will be a relief to Nick Clegg, the party leader and deputy prime minister who negotiated significant changes to the bill after Lib Dems used their spring conference last March to voted against the original plans.

The leadership would prefer to have it recognised that a previous Lib Dem rebellion gained big concessions, and that it would strain the patience of the Conservatives, the party's coalition partner, to demand further reform.

The FCC last weekend rejected an appeal to permit any motion to call for further changes to the health and social bill passed by the Commons last week. Instead, it accepted a proposal by the former head of the party's local government movement, Richard Kemp, that a one-hour general debate be added to the agenda rather than the brief Q&A session previously planned.

Speaking on behalf of the committee, Hughes pointed to the 13 demands the Lib Dems brought back to government after their spring conference to underline the role the party had played in changing the original NHS legislation.

He urged party members: "Don't score an own goal by unstitching a balanced conference."

Evan Harris, a former Lib Dem MP, used an article in Saturday's Guardian to suggest that closing down a debate of this kind smacked of the "Toryisation" of the Lib Dem conference.

H�l�ne Mulholland