Nurses are being treated “like dirt” by the Government, Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron has said.

Mr Farron told the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) conference in Liverpool that the Lib Dems will give the health service and social care a £48 billion funding boost over five years if they gain power – £30 billion of which would come from a penny increase on income tax.

He said that the Tory attitude to the NHS “feeds into a narrative of this Conservative Government treating nurses like dirt and I will not have it”.

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron arrives at Southport College in Southport, to meet nursing and care students and teaching staff
Tim Farron arrives at Southport College to meet nursing and care students and teaching staff (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Mr Farron added: “Nurses have been treated like pawns by the Tories for far too long.

“Longer hours, more stress and more pressure put on the NHS. Theresa May doesn’t seem to care that the system is underfunded and heading towards collapse.”

Mr Farron said the Lib Dems would scrap the existing public sector pay cap, which limits pay rises for workers to 1% per year until 2020.

Under plans to be unveiled in the party’s forthcoming manifesto, the Lib Dems said the end of pay restraint would result in an average pay rise of £779 for staff.

Analysis by the party found a new nurse will be £530 a year worse off by 2021 if the cap remains, thanks to rising inflation, while a primary school teacher would lose £550 and an army sergeant £830.

Mr Farron also said he favoured legalisation of cannabis because it would hit criminal gangs.

Cannabis
Mr Farron said regulation would reduce cannabis as a gateway drug (Gareth Fuller/PA)

“The evidence from around the world led us to conclude that the regulation of cannabis was a wise thing to do. It’s about taking back control from the criminal gangs.

“The evidence suggests that regulating cannabis as we propose does not increase usage of it, does protect people from the more dangerous strands of it, and reduces cannabis as a gateway drug.”

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron leaves the Royal College of Nursing conference at Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre
Tim Farron leaves the Royal College of Nursing conference at Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre (Gareth Fuller/PA)

Asked by an RCN delegate why people should believe the Lib Dems after the party broke its pledge on tuition fees, Mr Farron, who rebelled on the issue, said: “The problem is that if you are living in a society, and we are, where people assume that politicians are scumbags who don’t tell the truth, don’t confirm the suspicion.”

Mr Farron quoted a Star Wars character when he urged people opposed to a hard Brexit to vote Lib Dem, saying: “We are literally, in the words of Princess Leia, your only hope.”