Fears of health rebellion appear to be fizzling out

Labour figures I’ve been chatting to in the Lords have just about given up on bringing down the NHS reforms bill in tomorrow’s vote. It didn’t help that the amendment that would do the damage had Dr David Owen’s name at the top of it.

If you were the marketing manager for an amendment that needs to lure Lib Dem buyers you wouldn’t necessaily put the “Owen” branding all over the bonnet. He was the man who opposed the birth of their party and was, to many, a tricky partner in the SDP-Liberal Alliance years. 
 
The bigger issue here though has been Lib Dem credibility. Nick Clegg told his party that he’d saved the NHS with his own contributions to the re-working of the bill. So why would it need saving all over again and what would it say about the Lib Dem leadership if it did?

Shirley Williams’ concern that the Secretary of State in future could wash his or her hands of the whole NHS is, she is being promised, being addressed. Expect to see all sorts of unfamiliar attendees putting in an appearance on the Tory benches tomorrow lunchtime in a heavily whipped vote.

There will be other tricky votes as the bill goes through the Lords but tomorrow does not now look like a decisive moment.