ANDREW LANSLEY, the health secretary, could be axed as David Cameron ponders an early reshuffle.
Sources close to the prime minster told The Sunday Telegraph that he is weighing up whether to put a Liberal Democrat in the position.
The cabinet changes are thought to be pencilled in for late July, just before the Olympics.
Lansley has been heavily criticised for his handling of reforms to the National Health Service that would see power shifted from senior management to family doctors and lower-level medical staff.
The newspaper reports that Kenneth Clarke, the justice secretary, is also under threat after clashes with other colleagues.
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David Cameron had been expected to delay the first major reshuffle of senior ministers until after the Olympics, but now believes it can be done without interference so long as Jeremy Hunt, the culture secretary overseeing sport, remains in his post.
Hunt is seen by some as the favourite to replace Lansley when the bill finally becomes law. Vince Cable, the Lib Dem business secretary, is also in the firing line.
Last week Lansley was forced to write a strongly-worded article in the British Journal of Nursing defending himself against criticism to the changes in policy.
“Frankly I don't care if I come out of this reform process under attack from the professions and the opposition. All I care about is that we avert that crisis and give the NHS the support it needs for the future," Lansley wrote.
“I didn't go into politics because I wanted to win a popularity contest. I decided to work in public service because I want to help improve my country for future generations and that is what we are working to do.
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"Not reforming the NHS would have been a much easier decision for me as secretary of state to have taken. We could have just protected the NHS from cuts, put in an extra £12.5 billion and left it there. But sooner or later the cracks would have started to show. New treatments would have been held back. Queues would have grown. Patients would have been let down."