The health secretary has denied the government is being forced to clear up its own mistakes by announcing a partial reintroduction of bursary grants for student nurses, which the Conservatives abolished in 2016.

In the first major speech by a cabinet minister since last week’s election, Matt Hancock said the annual grants of between £5,000 and £8,000 would play a key part in the government’s promise of having 50,000 extra nurses in place within five years.

Repeating Conservative pledges to also to bring in 6,000 more GPs, 50m more GP appointments and 40 new hospitals, Hancock said the government would “deliver on these and each and every commitment in our manifesto”.

But answering questions following his speech to a thinktank in Westminster, Hancock declined to say whether there would be any repercussions if these targets were not met, for example ministers resigning, saying only that he was “absolutely committed to delivering” the numbers.

The announcement of the nursing student grants, made overnight, follows repeated warnings about drops in the number of would-be nurses since the Conservatives abolished the existing bursary system, also making student nurses pay tuition fees of up to £9,000 a year.

But Hancock denied the plan was an admission of error in abolishing the bursaries: “This training grant is different to the offer previously. It is more targeted, and in the last few years, when it hasn’t been in place, we have seen the number of nurses increase by 5,000 in the last year. That is good but 5,000 a year is about half the rate we need to be at to be reaching 50,000.”

In his speech, Hancock also promised a major advertising campaign to encourage more people to become student nurses, and to increase the number of places for nursing apprentices, as another route into the profession.

He said the announcement of the new grants had been rushed through ahead of the 15 January deadline for university applications, so people could think over Christmas about taking a nursing courses. The money, which begins in September 2020, would also be available for those part-way through courses, he added.

Hancock said the planned increase in nursing staff would form part of a wider revamp of the NHS based on better preventative health, and improved working culture, more use of technology and investment in infrastructure.

He said: “I am absolutely determined to meet the commitments that we have made, and to make sure that we repay the trust that has been put in us by delivering on the promises that we’ve made and the commitments that we have to this nation’s most-loved institution.”

There was, however, no new details on plans to revamp social care. Asked about this, Hancock: “We’ve made very clear on social commitments in our manifesto, and we’ve already been having discussions about starting that work.”

Responding to the overnight announcement of the new grants the Royal College of Nursing general secretary, Dame Donna Kinnair, welcomed it as “a first victory for the campaign that our student nurses are running”.

“This announcement will hopefully encourage more people to apply to a nursing degree by the mid-January deadline,” she added. “In the run-up to the budget, we continue to call for our students to not pay tuition fees up front. Any barriers for people wanting to enter nursing must be removed.”

Labour’s shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said: “The Conservatives’ policy of forcing would-be nurses to pay tuition fees has demonstrably failed in the last two years.

“While it is good to see that they have U-turned on their terrible policy position, nurses have called for additional funding to cover tuition fees too, not just living costs as the Tories promised in their manifesto.”