LABOUR will recruit 1,300 extra nurses for “dangerously understaffed” North-East hospitals if it wins the election, the party pledges today.

And it will offer local young care workers – struggling with “zero hour contracts, poor training and non-payment of minimum wage” – the chance to make the career switch.

The plan is the first breakdown of a £2.5bn ‘Time to Care’ package, promised last autumn, to be funded from a ‘mansion tax’ and a clampdown on tax avoidance by hedge funds.

A total of 20,000 new nurses will be recruited – by “early in the next parliament” – including 2,100 across Yorkshire, with the first extra training places in September.

Speaking to The Northern Echo, Andy Burnham, Labour’s health spokesman, said more than half of nurses described their ward as dangerously understaffed.

And he said: “I want to send a very clear message to young people in every region that there are opportunities for them to come and rebuild the NHS.

“They may be working in the care system, with zero-hour contracts, poor training, non-payment of the minimum wage – this is an invitation to be the NHS workforce of the future.”

The extra nurses would save money, by reducing the worrying trend of hospitals relying on expensive agency staff – running up an annual £2bn-plus bill, Mr Burnham said.

Labour has also pledged to abolish whirlwind 15-minute care visits to the sick and elderly, by recruiting 5,000 extra care workers.

Mr Burnham said: “We will get rid of 15 minute visits. They make no sense when they don’t do enough to prevent someone going into hospital.”

Meanwhile, he urged the North-East not to look enviously at a dramatic devolution deal pledged by the Conservatives to Manchester – warning it would add to a “funding crisis”.

Last month, George Osborne announced that Greater Manchester councils and health leaders will be handed control of its entire £6bn NHS budget, to integrate with social care services.

The move could be extended to the North-East, but only if its leaders drop their opposition to a single directly-elected mayor for much of the region.

But Mr Burnham said the deal had been “patched together at very short speed and in great secrecy” with major questions unanswered.

He said: “On Osborne’s plans, we are going to see some pretty brutal cuts to social care in the next parliament, because of his funding plans for local government

“And he isn’t promising to put the extra money in to recruit extra nurses as we are – so the NHS won’t have as much money

“I think he is basically devolving the funding crisis to Greater Manchester. And, it it’s a case of ‘Here’s the money, you’re on your own’, it’s not a particularly attractive deal.”