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Labour is warning of a £10billion threat to the NHS if Britain votes to leave Europe.

Shadow health secretary Heidi Alexander said the hit to the public finances from Brexit would mean brutal cuts to the Department of Health - equivalent to every hospital trust in England sacking 1,000 nurses and 155 doctors.

In a major speech, the Labour frontbencher will also warn about the threat to the NHS’s ability to recruit and retain people from Europe, at a time when hospitals are already dangerously understaffed.

She will highlight official stats showing more than 50,000 people from EU countries currently work in the NHS.

“The NHS cash crisis is already the worst in its history - but if we vote to leave Europe we risk plunging the health service into an even deeper crisis,” she told the Mirror.

(Image: Getty Images)

“In the worst case scenario, the Tories would have to cut the Department of Health’s budget by £10billion. These are cuts that would be bad for staff and bad for patient care.”

Labour’s stats were provided by the House of Commons library, based on an analysis by the highly-respected Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) on the likely damage to the economy of pulling out of the EU.

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Ms Alexander said she is speaking out to combat claims from Tory ’Vote Leave’ campaigners like Michael Gove that pulling out of Europe would actually help the NHS.

Mr Gove last week vowed to offer the NHS an extra £100million a week if we pull out of the EU, using money saved from Britain’s contribution to the EU budget.

But Ms Alexander said: “The ‘Leave’ camp’s promises of extra money to the NHS are complete and utter nonsense. These are people who don’t believe in the NHS and would put it at risk if they had the chance.”

(Image: Christopher Furlong/Getty)

It comes as Labour continue to face questions about the effectiveness of its own ‘Remain’ campaign.

Internal polls suggest many Labour voters are unsure where the party stands on the referendum, and yesterday deputy leader Tom Watson said the party “must redouble our efforts” with just over two weeks to go.

Mr Watson said: “We’ve got 17 days. Our job is to make sure Labour supporters are in no doubt that we’re asking people to vote Remain on Thursday June 23.

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“I’m personally concerned that polls seem to say Labour voters don’t know that yet.

“We believe in a workers’ Europe, a social Europe. We believe hard-won workers rights are under threat if we come out of the EU.”

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Ms Alexander was backed by healthworkers’ union Unison, which is calling for its members to vote ‘Remain’.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis told the Mirror: “Dedicated NHS staff know the ridiculous claims coming from the Brexit brigade that the NHS would be quids in outside the EU are the stuff of nonsense.

“The economic uncertainty of a European exit would mean spending cuts that would plunge NHS finances even deeper into the red - threatening jobs, patient services and hospital beds.”