Nick Clegg clashes with his party over 'tycoon tax" and health Bill Mr Cable was also said to be unhappy at being left out of Mr Clegg's planning of the new tax. The Business Secretary yesterday offered only lukewarm support for his leader's suggestion. "I haven't seen the details of the proposals so I can't give you a very informed comment," he said, adding: "The idea is an interesting one." Mr Clegg and his allies were openly irritated by Lord Oakeshott's criticism. The Deputy Prime Minister used his conference speech to deliver a public rebuke to the peer, a City fund manager, over his personal wealth. "The only person in the party who's against the tycoon tax is one of our own tycoons," Mr Clegg said. Lord Oakeshott responded by pointing to his public campaigning against big City bonuses for bankers including Bob Diamond of Barclays. "Ask Bob Diamond if I'm soft on tycoons," he said. The backlash over tax forced Mr Clegg to soften his language on the issue in his speech yesterday. "We will call time on the tycoon tax dodgers and make sure everyone pays a fair level of tax," he said, without mentioning the legal minimum rate he proposed on Saturday. Mr Clegg's aides admitted that there is little prospect of firm action on a tycoon tax in the Budget. Danny Alexander, the Chief Secretary to the Treasury, backed a minimum tax rate but said it was only "one of a number of ideas that we have." In another challenge to Mr Clegg's authority, the conference also refused to give full backing to the Coalition's Health and Social Care Bill. Delegates endorsed a motion backing the policy. But, defying Mr Clegg, they refused to order Lib Dem peers to vote for the changes in Parliament. The confused position underlined the party's anxieties over the Bill, which has been extensively rewritten under pressure from Lib Dems. Critics claim the policy is the greatest threat to the party's poll ratings and had wanted the conference to demand the Bill be dropped. That demand was rejected, but some party members believe it will make little political difference. Rachel Coleman Finch, an activist from Cambridge, told the conference: "The politics of this Bill are poisonous. We're screwed if we pass it. And we're screwed if we don't.