Stella Creasy has claimed nurse’s wages were downgraded at Whipps Cross Hospital as a cost-cutting measure to help pay off PFI bills.

The Walthamstow MP says the Leytonstone hospital suppressed staff pay in a bid to afford high-interest payments on private finance initiative (PFI) arrangements it had previously agreed.

Speaking in the Commons on Wednesday, Ms Creasy called on the Department of Health and Social Care to investigate the claims.

She said: "We all know how much agency nurses are costing the NHS, so too is PFI.

"A billion pounds in profit to these companies that won't touch any of our hospital budgets, including my own Whipps Cross Hospital which has a 17% agency rate and tried to deal with its PFI debt by downgrading the pay of nurses in order to save money.

"What is the Secretary of State doing to cut the PFI bill for our existing hospitals and prevent hospitals balancing their books off the back of hard-working staff?"

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt branded the claims “totally unacceptable” and said the department would investigate the matter further.

“[Ms Creasy] is right to draw attention to that problem,” Mr Hunt said.

“We have certainly stopped doing the kind of disastrous PFI deals with any new deals that lead to the kind of consequences she talks about.

"We have given some relief to a number of hospitals in that area, I will look again at her local hospital because it's clearly totally unacceptable."