Mumsnet Talk

Here's a way to ask your local MP to work against this. It's nothing about praying, btw, that's just the archaic form of language used.

action.goingtowork.org.uk/page/speakout/ask-your-mp-to-pray-against-jeremy-hunt-s-nhs-regulations

<Aware that it is bad etiquette to cut and paste but did it anyway ...>

The Government’s shock proposals, exposed by the Mirror after regulations were sneaked out in Parliament, sparked questions in the Commons

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David Cameron will have to drop secret Tory plans to put every part of the NHS out to tender, senior sources have claimed.

The Government’s shock proposals, exposed by the Mirror on Monday after regulations were sneaked out in Parliament, sparked questions in the Commons.

By yesterday more than 190,000 people had signed a petition against Mr Cameron’s “new privatisation plot”.

Section 75 regulations would allow private health companies to bid against the NHS for every service available to patients.

But Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham said the Government had been “caught out trying to force through privatisation by the back door”.

And he claimed there was complete confusion about the policy, adding that “these regulations have no democratic legitimacy”.

The plan has infuriated Lib Dem MPs, who were assured when the Government forced through its NHS overhaul that services would not be sold off.

Lib Dem Norman Lamb, Minister for Care and Support, insisted the plans would need to be reviewed “carefully” after concerns were raised that they flatly contradicted promises doctors would not be forced to hand services to private firms.

Mr Lamb said there were “clear commitments given in the Lords on the health and social care bill and it’s important the regulations are wholly consistent” with that.

Pressure mounted on Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to drop the plans yesterday after rebel Lib Dem MP Andrew George put forward a Commons early-day motion calling for the regulations to be “annulled”.

And a senior source told the Mirror the proposals would “ultimately be withdrawn”.

An aide to Mr Hunt last night added that the Health Secretary would be happy to compromise with the Lib Dems to “make sure that everybody is happy”.

Health Minister Earl Howe promised last March that doctors would be “under no legal obligation to create new markets”.

Yesterday at Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Cameron faced the fury.

Lib Dem Adrian Sanders asked him to “withdraw the National Health Service Regulations 2013, which seem to contradict assurances given that this coalition Government will not privatise our NHS”.

The PM insisted the rules only brought in “managed competition”.

But Labour’s Debbie Abrahams said the regulations go completely against assurances the NHS won’t be privatised.

Mr Cameron said: “It is going to be doctors making decisions about whether they want to expand choice and diversity.”

www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/nhs-privatisation-plan-stopped-health-1734326