Secretary Nicky Morgan was grilled as she attempted to defend the Conservative's manifesto during an appearance on Good Morning Britain today.
Boris Johnson's pledge to boost the NHS with another 50,000 nurses secured headlines following the Conservative Party manifesto launch, quickly came under close scrutiny.
Labour said the nursing figure was disingenuous when it included 19,000 nurses who already work in the NHS but are considering leaving, and it was this probed by Piers Morgan and Susanna Reid.
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GMB hosts were left raising their eyebrows over her remarks about the pledges from the Conservatives to hire more nurses and frequently quizzed the Culture Secretary over her claims. Many took to social media to call the interview a "car crash"
Probing the Culture Secretary, Morgan asked: "Just to clarify, 19,000 of the 50,000 are already current NHS nurses?"
‘There will be overall 50,000 more nurses, if you look in 10 years time, than there are today.’
— Good Morning Britain (@GMB) November 25, 2019
Culture Secretary Nicky Morgan defends the Tory’s pledge to deliver 50,000 more nurses.@piersmorgan | @susannareid100 | #GMB pic.twitter.com/LMVFEKUBQR
Ms Morgan replied: "If you look at the numbers of nursing staff who leave the NHS it is far too high. So like any employer, you want to make sure that you are keeping your skilled staff so that is absolutely part of the strategy."
Responding, Morgan said: "Why don't you just say that? Say, 'We're going to try and persuade people who may want to leave to stay' but not call them 'more nurses'.
"We know trust in Boris Johnson is very low. He did a debate recently and it came up as a question and everybody laughed at the idea he could be trustworthy.
"When he leads a manifesto, the flagship policy - is there going to be 50,000 more nurses - and now you as a culture secretary, a member of that cabinet, a member of that Government, admit that 19,000 of them already are NHS nurses, viewers at home go, 'This is complete nonsense!'"
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Susanna Reid also interjected to say that it was similar to claiming that there would be three more presenters on Good Morning Britain tomorrow, only to reveal it was the same three as usual who had been convinced to come to work.
Nicky Morgan then replied that, if there were an additional three, then there would now be six more, leaving the presenters briefly stunned.
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