'We'll bring back 45p top rate to fund more nurses'

Thousands more NHS jobs pledged after Labour promise to end Kwarteng's tax cut

- David Bond and Nicholas Cecil

THOUSANDS more doctors and nurses would be trained under a major NHS expansion funded by a reinstatement of the 45 per cent top tax rate, Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced today.

In her keynote speech to the Labour Party Conference in Liverpool, Ms Reeves made it clear that the party would reverse Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng's shock move last Friday to abolish the top rate of tax in his bid to drive economic growth.

But she went further, insisting that the £6 billion raised by the tax over the coming years would be used to boost the health service which is facing a severe staffing crisis as it battles to clear post-Covid backlogs.

Under the plan set out by Ms Reeves, a Labour government would:

Double the number of district nurses qualifying every year.

Train more than 5,000 new health visitors and create an additional 10,000 nursing and midwife placements every year.