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Tory MPs voted to inflict a further blow to student nurses by extending the cuts to bursaries to which experts say has led to chronic nurse shortages.

The debate in the Commons was called by Labour after the Government announced plans to axe nursing bursaries for around 1,000 who join the profession every year through a fast track course.

The plans, which Labour claimed the government had tried to push through the Commons without a vote in parliament, follow the decision to scrap the bursary for undergraduate degrees which saw numbers joining drop by a third.

The vote passed by 273 to 199 with the Government helped by the DUP , which backs keeping nursing bursaries in Northern Ireland, which is not covered by Wednesday's motion, abstaining and all but one SNP MP failing to turn up.

(Image: Philip Coburn/Daily Mirror)

Angela Rayner, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, who spoke for Labour in the debate, said: “The Government has badly failed the next generation of nurses today by forcing through further cuts to their support and burdening health students with yet more debt.

“Labour will continue to fight these regressive cuts at every step to make sure health students can get the support they need.”

Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Secretary, said: “The Government’s decision to abolish NHS bursaries has led to a huge fall in numbers applying for these courses and will make the NHS staffing crisis even worse.

“Now Ministers are pushing ahead with further bursary cuts in the face of all evidence.

“By cutting bursaries for postgraduate students, the Tories’ vote tonight makes it even harder for people to train to work in the NHS.”

Ministers announced extra undergraduate nurse training places last year but did not attract enough students to fill them. There were 700 fewer students starting training in September 2017 than in the previous academic year.

(Image: Getty)

Announced in February, it means those who already have a different degree and want to join the profession on the two year postgraduate course will now rack up thousands of pounds more in student debt.

Ahead of the vote Janet Davies, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “The decision to remove undergraduate support resulted in a collapse in trainee applications.

“Ministers should think very carefully before risking a further drop at a time when our health and social care system is desperately short of nurses.

“This is the quickest way to train top-quality registered nurses and should be expanded, not cut off.

“The current shortage of nurses is jeopardising safe and effective patient care and the Government urgently needs to encourage more people to enter the profession.”

There are currently an estimated 40,000 nursing vacancies in England alone.