Nick Clegg and Shirley Williams dismissed by No 10 as 'some people' to reassure Tory MPs alarmed by 'Yellow Bastards'
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Wrangling over the NHS reforms shows how Nick Clegg and David Cameron have moved on since their Downing Street press conference in May 2010. Photograph: Charlie Bibby/FINANCIAL TIMES
If anyone doubted the challenge of running a coalition government, then take a look at the knots Downing Street tied itself up in today on the NHS reforms.
David Cameron had a difficult balancing act to perform on the latest – and final – concessions the Liberal Democrats are to be offered on the health and social care bill.
On one hand, Nick Clegg had to be granted a few sweeties to avoid a dangerous backlash at the Lib Dem spring conference the weekend after next.
On the other hand, the prime minister had to play down the extent of the changes to avoid his own backlash from Tory MPs enraged by concessions to what they call "Yellow Bastards". A major move by Andrew Lansley would confuse and irritate Conservative MPs who were told by No 10 at an awayday last Friday that altering the health and social care bill would lead the measure into "a no man's land and chaos".
So Downing Street started the proceedings today by saying that no significant changes would be made to the bill. This is what the prime minister's spokesman said at the 11.00am daily briefing:
We have made clear that we don't see any need for further significant changes to the bill. We had a listening exercise. We made significant changes to the bill. We think that the bill is the right one and the reforms are the right reforms.
This irritated the Lib Dems who had won concessions from No 10 and the department of health. As the Downing Street spokesman made his remarks, the Lib Dem leadership was putting the final touches to a joint letter by Clegg and Shirley Williams, one of three surviving members of the SDP "Gang of Four", who has led the charge against the NHS bill.
The letter said that the Lib Dems have won four major concessions which will "rule out beyond doubt any threat of a US-style market in the NHS". Winning over Williams, who started to lead the opposition to the bill at last year's Lib Dem spring conference, is designed to avoid a damaging row at this year's conference in NewcastleGateshead between 9-11 March. Clegg and Williams specifically address this point in their letter:
Next month we will return to where this process all began a year ago when we meet at our party's Spring conference. Once these final changes have been agreed, we believe conference can be reassured that it has finished the job it started last March and the Bill should be allowed to proceed.
The publication of the letter meant that Downing Street found itself in a slightly awkward position at the 3.45pm briefing. The No 10 spokesman did not want to resile from his remarks at 11.00am that no significant changes would be made to the bill. But equally he did not want to give the impression that only a few commas would be changed in the bill.
This meant that Clegg and Williams ended up being portrayed as "some people", almost as outside activists, in the No 10 briefing. Asked whether it was still the case the government would not be making significant changes to the bill, the spokesman said:
That is precisely what I said. The case this afternoon is that we accept that there are some people who require further clarity on some of these issues, particularly those issues relating to competition, want further reassurance and we are very happy to provide that.
Clegg and Cameron are praying that once the bill reaches the statute bill they will be able to put a year of wrangling behind them. Labour is licking its lips. Officially it is committed to a Drop the Bill campaign. Unofficially it is looking forward to blaming every failing in the NHS between now and the general election in 2015 on the bill.