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Tory manifesto in confusion.


So, already the Tory manifesto pledge for 50,000 more nurses is falling apart.

Nicky Morgan, The culture secretary, says that "misreading" of the Tory manifesto may have resulted in people thinking they are pledging 50,000 "new" nurses by 2024-5 if they win the general election.

Indeed so, what else were we to think?

It emerged 18,500 of the posts would be filled by encouraging qualified nurses to stay in the profession or return to work. NOT new nurses at all!

Only around 19,000 of the posts would be filled by new nurse trainees...Ah! Trainees.

Ms Morgan says: "I think there's been a confusion, people reading that as 50,000 new nurses."

We don't know whether to laugh or cry. But it seems that it is our fault, not theirs. She goes on:

"I think sometimes that's a deliberate confusion and sometimes that's just a genuine misreading of the manifesto.

So, just as Mrs May's manifesto launch in 2017 unravelled within hours, so too is Boris Johnson's.

The Tories cannot be trusted on the NHS. On that, there is no 'confusion'.
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