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One of the greatest privileges of being Labour’s shadow Health Secretary is the opportunity to meet our inspirational nurses and midwifes working on the NHS frontline.

They look after us in hospitals, in community health centres and in our homes. They help bring us into the world, care for us when we are sick and tend to us in our final moments.

Everyone has a story of how they have been comforted by the total professionalism, dedication and goodwill of a nurse. Our nurses and midwives are the very best of British and I’ll always be their champion.

Tomorrow nurses, midwives and other health workers will gather in Westminster to call for the end to the Government-imposed pay freeze. I look forward to meeting them.

This pay freeze has led to NHS recruitment crisis as young people are put off joining health professions and other simply cannot afford to continue.

(Image: Getty)

Tory Ministers who know the price of everything but the value of nothing have compounded the crisis by scrapping the NHS bursary. It’s as shortsighted measure that won’t just saddle future health staff with debt before they even start their careers, but will put many off applying in the first place.

The Government still have the time to, and should, reverse this decision for students starting in September this year. And if they don't reinstate NHS bursaries a Labour government will.

Theresa May buries her head in the sand but her failure to grip the NHS crisis means patients suffer.

More than a million people work in the NHS – the health service is its staff. And as a result, what’s bad for health staff is bad for their patients too.

Staff shortages lead to higher waiting times, shorter appointments and fewer services. Tired, overworked staff cannot be expected to continue providing the quality of care that we want our families and loved ones to receive.

It’s all typical of a Conservative approach to the NHS – short term decision making which will cost the public purse much, much more in the long term. By restraining NHS funding, cutting capital budgets, slashing away at public health and social care, the Government are simply storing up problems for the future.

The Government has pushed the NHS to the brink, and needs to step in now to provide proper support to those who care for us when we need it most.

Labour believes this nurses’ pay cap is unfair. NHS staff are well overdue a pay rise, and it’s right that the level of pay is set by the independent Pay Review Body, not held down for political reasons as it has been under David Cameron and Theresa May.

That’s why it’s time for the Government to make sure the nursing staff, paramedics, midwives and other key workers who care for us when we need it most are paid at a level which recognizes the skill, training and dedication which they bring to our health service.