Andy Burnham MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said on reports in Friday’s Times of NHS managers rehired after a £1 million pay in David Cameron’s health service reorganisation:

“This is precisely what we warned would happen when we and millions of others pleaded with David Cameron to stop his re-organisation. But the sheer scale of the waste is breathtaking.

"David Cameron’s refusal to listen and honour his promise of ‘no top-down’ re-organisation has resulted in a scandalous abuse of precious NHS resources. He has given gold-plated, six-figure pay-offs to thousands of managers while handing P45s to six thousand nurses.

"What clearer illustration could there be of a Prime Minister with his priorities seriously wrong? It will be galling for any nurses who have lost their jobs to see the sickening scale of these pay-outs.

"Why on earth weren’t staff who were to be retained by the NHS simply transferred to the new organisations instead of given huge pay-offs? These revelations leave David Cameron with serious questions to answer about both the conduct of this re-organisation and its cost.”