NHS services face radical restructuring after the ‘Health and Social Care Bill’ passed its final hurdle in parliament. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
After 14 months of bitter debate in Parliament and huge protests throughout the UK, the public's concern culminated in an eleventh hour bid with a 600,000-strong petition to drop the Bill, organised by campaign group 38 Degrees and presented by former Social Democratic Party leader Lord Owen.
He demanded the Bill be stopped until the risk document was published as "risks go to the core of this legislation."
He shocked fellow peers by saying that many people consider David Cameron's promise that there would be no top-down reorganisation of the NHS "a flagrant lie." Peers defeated Lord Owen's bid to pause the Bill 328 to 213.
An emergency debate called by Labour had the potential to delay the Bill until an internal assessment of risks had been published.
The Commons defeated the motion by 328 to 246 - a majority of 82. No Lib Dem MPs sided with the opposition, with the most vocal critics choosing to abstain.
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