Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, responding to the Royal College of Nursing’s new “Against the Odds” report, said:

“Seven years of Tory mismanagement and underfunding has placed an unacceptable level of pressure on nursing staff to keep NHS services running. 

"The Government is constantly asking NHS workers to do more with less, and over 70 per cent of nurses surveyed by the RCN have said their last shift had unsafe numbers of staff. This is a threat to the quality of care which patients can expect to receive. 

"At the election Labour promised to bring in a new law to guarantee safe staffing levels in hospitals. Ministers must step up and explain what action they’re going to take to get enough nurses in place to keep services for patients running safely.”