Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to research by the Nursing Times showing a high turnover of nurses recruited from abroad, said:

“We warned David Cameron it would be a false economy to cut nurse training places and that is proved by expensive recruitment from overseas and the unprecedented use of agency nurses. Labour plans to bring through a new generation of home-grown nurses by training a further 10,000 above current levels in the next Parliament.

“David Cameron has left the NHS seriously short of the nurses it needs – he should match our plans to invest an extra £2.5 billion to recruit 20,000 nurses and 8,000 GPs.”