Ministers lied to push through NHS reforms, Labour peer claims Lady Thornton's amendment is one of two last-ditch attempts to stop the health and social care bill in the Lords. The government has lied and sold the public a pup over the idea that patients will be able to challenge doctors and hospitals over treatments, according to Labour's health team. In "unusually unparliamentary language" Lady Thornton, Labour's health spokeswoman in the Lords, said the bill was a triumph for Tory ministers who had seen Liberal Democrats "capitulate" over the vexed issue of privatising the NHS. The Labour peer, who has followed the reforms since they were published in July 2010, says that although the bill has been amended more than 300 times, its pro-market measures remain largely intact and the health service will be end up as "a terrible bureaucratic, expensive and fragmented NHS." In an interview with the Guardian, Thornton said: "This is an ideologically driven bill and the Lib Dems capitulated. Ministers lied to get it through. I know it's unusually unparliamentary language but I am really horrified. They have sold us a pup. There is mounting anger in the professions over the way the bill has been pushed through parliament despite vociferous opposition. A group of doctors has threatened to put up candidates to oppose coalition MPs at the next election in protest at proposed changes to the NHS in England - a move that will unsettle the government as in 2001 a similar move brought a medic into the Commons on the back of a local hospital closure. Monday will see two final attempts by the crossbencher Lord Owen and Thornton to kill off the bill. The Owen amendment seeks to stall further progress until the government produces the risk register, which outlines the potential pitfalls of the NHS reforms. After a tribunal ruling to make public the risk assessment of the NHS shakeup in England last week, the health minster Lord Earl wrote to peers saying that its release could lead to "alarmist misrepresentation." Thornton will also put forward a motion asking peers to halt the bill. Such motions are rarely used, invoked only at times of high political drama. On the last occasion, peers were asked to oppose "that this bill do now pass" during the Blairite push to reform the House of Lords in 1998. Before that a similar vote took place during the Maastricht debates of 1993 that rocked the Major administration. The Labour peer said such a vote was now justified as "it really was the last 48 hours to save the NHS." Her ire is particularly directed at the Lib Dem peers Lady Williams and Lord Clement-Jones. After weeks of working with the pair on defeating the government over the pro-competition parts of the bill, Thornton said the two had pulled out just before the crucial Lib Dem spring conference - where activists went on to win a motion declining to back the reforms and embarrassed the party leadership. Instead of shielding the NHS from the full force of EU competition law, Clement-Jones did a deal with the government so that ministers would offer a "strong statement" on the need to take patients' interests into account - arguing that this would insulate the health service in court against legal challenge. Thornton said a minister's "strong statement" was not likely to be "worth much," adding it would mean "the proposed protection comes when legal action starts to take place. I would prefer the protection to be in the bill to stop it ever getting to court. Thornton says the government has become insouciant and arrogant as the reforms get closer to entering the statute books. She points out that the government promised patients would get local champions to challenge the NHS over decisions. However, it emerged last week that these bodies would not be "statutory," leading to allegations that the government would instead be "privatising patient voices." Look at the idea that patients would get local champions so that there would be, in the government's own words, 'no decision about me without me'. It was just a lie. We are left with something totally inadequate. A Department of Health spokesperson disagreed with Thornton's analysis. The health and social care bill will hand power to GPs, put patients at the heart of the NHS and reduce needless bureaucracy. The independent NHS Future Forum found broad support for the principles of our plans and following their recommendations we have strengthened the bill. Without the bill we couldn't remove two layers of bureaucracy and reinvest £4.5bn in patient care. Around the country patients are already being treated in more convenient places, pressure on hospitals is reducing, and we are safeguarding the NHS for future generations.