Nick Clegg backs 'I'll quit' aide over need to make reforms work

Nick Clegg today backed a key aide who threatened to resign over concerns about the Government's NHS shake-up.

The Deputy Prime Minister said he "couldn't agree more" with Norman Lamb over the need to make sure the reforms would be successful.

He also vowed that the Government would consider changes to the shape and timing of the overhaul during the pause announced last week by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley.

Yesterday Mr Lamb, a government whip and Mr Clegg's chief political adviser, said that he had "very real concerns" about the reform plan
and argued for "evolution, not revolution".

He told BBC 1's Politics Show: "I've said if it's impossible for me to carry on in my position I will step down, I don't want to cause embar-rassment, but I feel very strongly about this issue."

The intervention laid bare tensions within the Coalition about Mr Lansley's reforms, criticised over both their pace and scale.

Today Mr Clegg insisted there were no disagreements over the key principles - to hand GPs more power over budgets and commissioning, strip out bureaucracy and give councils a greater say on the NHS.

But he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "The detail of exactly how you make those principles work in practice are, of course, things that we want to get right. And I couldn't agree more with Norman, we have to get this right.

"The NHS is too precious not to get the principle translated properly into practice."
Mr Clegg added there was "no point" in the pause - to get health professionals behind the reforms - unless the Government was prepared to make "substantive changes".