LABOUR leader Jeremy Corbyn visited Worcester yesterday - pledging to SCRAP hospital parking charges if he becomes Prime Minister.

Mr Corbyn also promised to lift the pay cap for NHS workers and ensure "every primary school child, of every age" gets free meals if his party wins the General Election.

During a frenetic two-part visit to the city, he:

- Spoke to nursing students at the University of Worcester, telling them a new bursary would be introduced to fund their costs of living

- Delivered a speech to a packed crowd outside Worcester Guildhall, where he angrily hit out at "overcrowded hospital wards" and "patients queuing up in corridors"

- Told the Worcester News hospital parking charges would be axed, including at Worcestershire royal

The pledge on free parking at hospitals would apply to patients, visitors and staff, with Mr Corbyn saying it would cost £162 million in England.

It comes at a time when sites like Worcestershire royal charge £3.70 an anyone looking to park for over an hour - climbing all the way to £7.50 for over six hours.

Speaking to this newspaper, he said: "It's a bit sad when someone goes into a hospital and they've got to think 'I'll have to go and top up the parking meter in a minute'.

"It's got to end - car parking charges at hospitals are crippling, so we've worked out a way of funding it."

Labour's Worcester parliamentary candidate Councillor Joy Squires, who accompanied him on the visit, said it was wrong that people had to pay to get in.

"It's a big issue in Worcester here at our hospital - this will come as very, very good news," she said.

Mr Corbyn said the party will fund the cost by raising insurance tax on private healthcare to 20 per cent.

During his university visit, which lasted around an hour, he talked to nursing degree students about their struggles, before addressing a sun-kissed public gathering in the High Street at lunchtime.

He said: "This morning we've seen a wonderful group of students in our NHS and do you know what they told me?

"These are students who are becoming nurses and paramedics, working within our NHS, and what did the say?

"They told me they are proud to be in the NHS, proud to be health workers, proud to put something back into our communities, but they also said 'every year, we take a pay cut', and they feel under-valued by the rest of society.

"So I make it very clear that today, a Labour Government will lift the pay cap on our NHS workers."

To rousing applause, he also criticised the Conservatives record over the NHS, saying it was a clear dividing line between the parties.

He also told the crowd Labour would make tackling mental health a priority when the party's manifesto is out next week.

"We will look at things again to ensure every part of this country has an A&E within reach, an NHS that is sustainable, and doesn't have over-crowded wards," he said.

"We don't have to have people queueing up in the corridors waiting to be treated.

"This Tory Government has under-funded our NHS - a Labour Government will make the necessary decisions to ensure our NHS is properly funded, that is what we do."

Robin Walker, Worcester's Conservative parliamentary candidate, hit back last night by calling his free hospital policy "dubious".

"A levy on private health insurance is a very dubious idea - people who take out private health insurance are already relieving a burden on the NHS and paying taxes," he said.

"It'd be more realistic to campaign for more parking at the royal, and cheaper parking."

Worcester's UK Independence Party branch, which had activists at the speech yesterday, also said Labour were "stealing" a policy that was already in their manifesto.

But Mr Corbyn's policy won praise from GMB, the union for NHS staff, which called the charges "immoral".

Rehana Azam, GMB's secretary for public services, said: "We all know the NHS has been choked by years of Conservative underfunding.

"But expecting distraught families and underpaid staff to make up the difference through extortionate parking charges is not the answer.

"Hospital car parking is free in Wales and most of Scotland so it's only right for people in England to get the same treatment.

"Whether you are a visitor of someone who is unwell or working flat out to care for patients, free car parking would mean one less thing for people to worry about."

Some hospitals are charging staff nearly £100 a month to park, resulting in reports of nurses having to rush out between appointments and move their cars to avoid fines.

Film director Ken Loach was also in Worcester yesterday following Mr Corbyn on his city visit, telling reporters he was doing a documentary about the Labour leader.

During Mr Corbyn's stay at the university he also spent time with its vice-chancellor David Green at the Sheila Scott building off Turnpike Close.

He regularly praised Cllr Squires, who is looking to overturn Mr Walker's 5,646 majority from the 2015 General Election, calling her "brilliant".

HOW WE'RE FIGHTING FAKE NEWS ON THE ELECTION TRAIL

THE Worcester News and local papers up and down the country are currently running a campaign fighting against Fake News.

Mr Corbyn’s visit to Worcester was an example of how we interact with our readers, and how they can help us drive the news agenda.

When news of the Labour leader’s visit emerged, we asked readers what questions they would most like to put to him – and then quizzed Mr Corbyn on their behalf during our interview with him.

Interacting with our readers is a key part of what we do - the public we serve play a key role in helping to shape the questions that we put to public figures such as Mr Corbyn, ensuring the concerns that are most important to them are addressed.

Yesterday some of the questions on our Facebook page ranged from how to prevent people dying in hospital corridors to his strategy on taxes, how to protect the NHS from private interference and public sector pay.

Mr Corbyn addressed many of the points directly, including his pledge to raise income tax for people earning over £80,000 but freeze taxes, including VAT and National Insurance, for everyone else until 2021.

"We have one of the most unequal societies in Europe," he said.

He also reiterated a promise to delay the emerging five-year regional plans to remodel the NHS, saying the process "will be halted" until concerns were addressed about services being harmed.