“It’s good to see staffing issues recognised by Labour as one of the biggest challenges currently facing the NHS, and active steps promised to address them.
"The seven years of pay restraint endured by NHS staff have led to nurses seeing a 14% real terms reduction in their wages since 2010, and we know that applications for nursing courses from mature students, who have valuable life skills to offer the health service, have fallen since bursaries for nursing courses were abolished.
"However, both these pledges potentially come with significant price tags for which Labour will have to commit extra funding, or else the NHS simply won’t be able to afford the staff it already has.”