Health Bill [HL]

I thought we would all be rushing to our feet on this amendment because it is, in my view, the most controversial amendment. It is an Exocet amendment. If it were to be implemented—and we will come to the motive of the noble Baroness in a minute—it would completely undermine the National Health Service. I understand where the noble Baroness is coming from. She has tabled this as a probing amendment because she wants to provoke a debate about these issues. She is not saying that this is exactly what she would pursue. She made it clear that she would not wish it to apply to her trust, certainly while she is leading it. She said that there may be some interest in it in the longer term in a more refined form. I regard this as a very dangerous amendment. I have talked to Anne Campbell, the former Labour MP who I presume has written to a number of Members of the Committee about her views on this matter. We have to go back to what happened in 2003 when the Bill establishing foundation trusts went through the House of Commons. Many MPs were opposed to foundation trusts being established. I recall moving between the tea room, the bars in the House of Commons and other places lobbying, not officially on behalf of the Government, in favour of the creation of these trusts. I believed in them because I believed the assurances that were being given by Ministers that they would not go down the route that this amendment suggests. If the undertaking that were given to Parliament at that time had not been given to Parliament, there would—