Responding to the news that his e-petition calling for the Government to drop the health bill had failed to secure a parliamentary debate, Dr Kailash Chand, a GP and chair of NHS Tameside and Glossop, said he was ‘angry, disappointed and saddened'.
‘What's the point of e-petitions if they turn down for debate the one that got the most signatures of any so far?' he said. ‘It's an insult to the very democracy we're so proud of. It's so important it affects absolutely everyone in the country.'
MPs on the Backbench Business Committee should provide a full explanation of their decision to reject the petition for debate, he said.
‘They need to tell us what their reasons were. They've shown no regard for the BMA, most of the royal colleges, the trade unions, all the people who need to implement the health reforms. Now they're telling the general public that they don't care about their opinions.'
‘We are a nation that was the mother of democracy - now at every stage we're overriding the needs of democracy.'
‘Like the poll tax and the Iraq war, see what happened to Margaret Thatcher and Tony Blair - the NHS will be on the gravestone of David Cameron.'
But Dr Chand said despite the fact his petition would not secure its own debate, there was still time for the Government to back down.
‘There's still time to reconsider and drop this bill,' he said.
