What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

The Liberal Democrats will commit £1bn to end the ‘historic injustice' faced by people with mental ill health.

The party said they would ring-fence the money from the £6bn they have already announced they will allocate to the NHS and social care.

The additional cash will come from putting a pound on income tax.

The party's health chief Norman Lamb said the Tory's record on mental health was "disgusting".

He said: "What's really shocking is that in the last budget of the coalition we secured an extra £1.25bn for children and young people's mental health over a five-year period.

"It was supposed to be £250m a year but the Tories are short-changing families because in the first year it was £143m, in the second year half of CCGs around the country didn't spend their full quota on children's mental health.

"I just think this is disgusting they made a solemn commitment to make this investment and it's not all getting through to where its needed."

Lamb said that the pledge for equality between mental and physical health was a long way off.

"We legislated for equality for mental health but the brutal truth is there is no equality there is in effect discrimination within our NHS," he said.

"If you have a mental health problem you are discriminated against - you do not have the same right to get treatment on time as someone with a physical health problem does and I find that intolerable."

(Image: Getty)

Lamb insisted that, while there had been huge progress in addressing the stigma surrounding ill health but that was pointless if the funding wasn't there.

He said: "I think as a society we've made big progress in the two years - it's no longer the hidden illness.

"People have been much more willing to speak out about it - indeed our son chose to do that on national telly with me and I'm very proud of him for doing so and lots of people have done that and the Princes have played a really important role.

"They are helping to remove the stigma but there does then have to be treatment for people it's no good if we get it out into the open, if people seek help and then they find there's nothing there. Then you feel abandoned."

A major new study by the Mental Health Foundation released this week revealed that most Britons -65%- say that they have experienced a mental health problem - like a panic attack or depression, with younger people more likely than those over the age of 55 to say that they have experienced a mental health issue.

The Liberal Democrats have identified 12 key priorities which they would use the £1bn to address.

These include introducing access and waiting time standards for mental health care in the NHS and ending the scandal of people with mental ill health being shunted across the country because there is no support available close to home.

The Liberal Democrats will also set out to end the inappropriate use of force against people with mental ill health, end out of area placements for mental health patients and prioritise national action to reduce the number of suicides.

Mr Lamb said: “Neither Labour nor the Conservatives have outlined how they will fund mental health services.

"We’ve made it clear that our priorities will be funded from our ambitious plan to inject £6bn a year into the NHS with an additional penny on income tax.”