Tory Ministers need to back the Health Bill

Tomorrow’s Downing Street meeting on the implementation of the health reforms is meant to send the message that the bill is definitely going ahead. Number 10 is keen to shore up the bill ahead of Liberal Democrat Spring Conference following the uncertainty caused by Rachel Sylvester’s column and Conservative Home’s call for the bill to be dropped. Indeed, I understand that at the Quad dinner on Monday night, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander made the basic political point that the Liberal Democrats would feel absolved of the need to support the bill if any Tory minister came out publicly against it.

But Tory ministers still need to muster more public enthusiasm for the bill. William Hague, a long-term sceptic of the bill, conspicuously left health off his list of ‘vital structural reforms’ that the government is engaged in when talking to yesterday’s Telegraph. On Marr, this morning he again failed to muster much enthusiasm for the bill.