Government ‘has no plans to perform U-turn on health bill proposals’

The government will not back down on its plans to introduce large-scale reforms to the NHS, Downing Street has maintained.

Members of the Liberal Democrat Party used the opportunity of their party's spring conference to express their concerns with the plans laid out by David Cameron, voting against what they believe to be a potentially damaging programme of reforms.

However, despite this emergent split within the ruling coalition, Number 10 has insisted that, while proposals such as axing primary care trusts may ultimately be amended when they are placed before parliament, the government will not be performing a U-turn anytime soon.

A short statement released by Mr Cameron's official spokesman on the back of the weekend conference said: "There are not about to be significant changes to the policy."

At the party's Sheffield conference, Lib Dem delegates voted in favour of calling on the government to ensure a number of safeguards are put into the health bill, while also calling for a more 'bottom-up', rather than a 'top-down', approach to reforming the system.