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Louis Staples
Nov 24, 2019
It doesn't look like Boris Johnson’s main manifesto pledge of 50,000 new nurses is actually true.
Johnson is known for being somewhat economical with the truth. In fact, one of the themes of the General Election campaign has been Tory “facts” turning out to be Tory fibs. Remember the bogus “FactCheckUK” Twitter account? Or the promise to build 40 new hospitals that turned out to be just six?
Unveiling the Conservative’s election manifesto, Boris Johnson pledged to give the NHS 50,000 "more" nurses.
"Today, in this manifesto, we pledge 50,000 more nurses and their bursaries" Boris Johnson also pledges to cut cri… https://t.co/dhGLKOTHZi— BBC Politics (@BBC Politics) 1574607876
But, looking more closely at the figures, the numbers don’t quite add up.
The Guardian’s deputy political editor Rowena Mason reports that 19,000 of these nurses are “retained”, which means they’re staying in the NHS instead of leaving.
So the pledge of 50,000 "new" nurses is 31,000 at best, just 62 per cent of the pledged figure.
This is big: Boris Johnson’s headline promise of 50,000 new nurses turns out to mean 31,000 at best. https://t.co/FMcdUr5aj2— George Eaton (@George Eaton) 1574610174
Then there’s also the matter of the nurses bursary, which the Tories were warned against scrapping in 2015, but have now promised to bring back.
Critics of the initial removal of the bursary were quick to say “I told you so”.
How stupid do you think we are? You scrapped the nurse bursary that paid for English nurses to train. Or are you go… https://t.co/0iIVouWFDB— David Lammy (@David Lammy) 1574605754
Everybody told the Tories that scrapping student nurses bursaries would be a disaster, for years they took no notic… https://t.co/2JWonuadEO— Angela Rayner (@Angela Rayner) 1574607063
Good to see you copying my Labour policies, er yet again. Can you next end privatisation of the NHS, abandon cuts t… https://t.co/3shO0pIJL4— Jonathan Ashworth (@Jonathan Ashworth) 1574593738
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