LANCASHIRE Telegraph health expert Dr Tom Smith has urged the Liberal Democrats to fight the Tories’ plans for NHS reform.

The Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has threatened to veto the Health and Social Care Bill, which would give GPs control of NHS budgets, unless it is substantially improved.

The Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered a ‘pause’ during the passage of the Health Secretary Andrew Lansley’s bill, during which time doctors leaders have said sections dealing with competition must be rewritten.

Dr Tom said: “I’m absolutely, totally and ferociously against these reforms. What they are going to do is take away the basis of the NHS we’ve had since 1948.”

He said he feared Britain was heading towards a situation similar to that in America.