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Labour is today pledging to wipe out NHS hospital car parking charges in a £190milllion vow to patients, families and hard-pressed staff.

Jeremy Corbyn used a statement to announce the major policy would feature in the party's general election manifesto.

It would be funded by increasing the rate of insurance premium tax on private healthcare products by more than half, from 12% to 20%.

The pledge comes after years of campaigns against parking charges and a Mirror investigation that showed they raked in £160million in one year.

The Unison union says some nurses on low wages are paying £100 a month and having to rush out mid-shift to top up their tickets.

Mr Corbyn said the charges "place an unfair and unnecessary burden on families, patients and NHS staff."

(Image: PA) (Image: PA) (Image: PA)

Speaking on a visit to nursing students in Tory-held Worcester, he was due to say: "Hospital parking charges are a tax on serious illnesses.

"Our hospitals are struggling from under-funding at the hands of Theresa May’s Conservative government.

"But the gap should not be filled by charging sick patients, anxious relatives and already hard-pressed NHS staff for an essential service.

“Our NHS needs a Labour government that will stand up for the many, not the few.”

Labour said the policy would cost £162million in England, rising to £190million once Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland are included.

It said hiking insurance premium tax on private healthcare products would raise £377million, or £221million at a cautious estimate.

(Image: PA) (Image: REUTERS)

The party insisted ordinary families were unlikely to be hit because "around 80%" of private healthcare insurance policies "are now purchased by corporate employers on behalf of wealthier, high skilled employees".

This is a rise from around half in the 1980s, according to the party.

Meanwhile NHS staff are braced for a total of seven years of pay rises capped at 1% thanks to Tory austerity.

More than 130,000 people have signed a petition to scrap parking charges for NHS staff - but Labour's vow would go further.

Labour figures insisted the generous offer would be policed to stop people using the car parks to pop down to the shops.

A source told the Mirror: “We will learn from the experience of Wales and Scotland, which have free hospital parking, to develop the best enforcement processes”.

Labour said it would continue existing VAT exemptions on private health and medical products, and its hike to insurance premium tax would exclude dentistry and cash plans.

Last month the Mirror revealed how medics at a clinic in Poole Hospital, Dorset, must dash to move their cars every two hours to avoid £40 fines – after hospital bosses took away their parking permits.

(Image: Daily Mirror)

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And staff at the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham have been hit with £70 parking fines after leaving their cars on the street - two years after being kicked out of the NHS hospital's car park.

A nurse said: “I’ve just come out to find a massive fine on my windscreen. It seems like they’ve done it just to make money fast – everyone is livid.”

At least 20 vehicles were slapped with tickets.

What NHS trusts raked in from parking in 2015/16

Heart of England £4,841,108 (patient/visitor £3,465,357, staff £1,375,751)

East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust £3,671,735 (patient/visitor £1,920,283, staff £1,751,452)

University Hospital Southampton £3,366,770 (of which £1,015,081 was from staff)

University Hospitals of North Midlands £3,347,723 (patients/visitors £2,503,097, staff £844,626)

Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £3,030,678

South Tees Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £2,987,458

Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £2,801,117 (patients/visitors £2,193,884, staff £607,233)

Aintree University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust £2,659,000

Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust £2,557,081

Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust £2,349,449 (patients/visitors £1,326,115, staff £1,023,334)

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust £2,271,352 (patients/visitors £1,573,201, staff £698,151)

Northern Lincolnshire & Goole NHS Foundation Trust £2,226,000

North Bristol NHS Trust £2,143,499 (patients/visitors £1,551,524, staff £591,975)

Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust (Oct 2015 to Oct 2016) £2,070,045

University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust £2,025,131

University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust £2,018,935

Medway NHS Foundation Trust £1,924,848 (patients/visitors £1,610,910, staff £313,938)

Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust £1,895,634

Epsom and St Helier University Hospitals NHS Trust £1,878,562

West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust £1,868,424

Chelsea and Westminster Hospital NHS Foundation Trust £1,822,579

Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £1,815,000 (patients/visitors £1,306,000, staff £509,0000)

Great Western Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £1,744,240

Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust £1,726,000

Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust £1,696,870

Southend University Hospital £1,694,939

Western Sussex Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £1,650,772

Hillingdon Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £1,641,232 (patient/visitor £1,341,844, staff £299,388)

Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Foundation Trust £1,621,162

Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust £1,610,490

Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh NHS Foundation Trust £1,590,324 (patients/visitors £1,077,351, staff £512,973, parking fines £7,354)

Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £1,589,000 (patients/visitors £1,249,000, staff £338,000)

Ipswich Hospital £1,566,025

Hull & East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust £1,554,233

Southport and Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust £1,549,359

Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust £1,534,090

Shrewsbury and Telford £1,525,640 (patients/visitors £1,029,192, staff £496,448)

Royal United Hospitals Bath NHS Foundation Trust £1,513,589

Barts Health NHS Trust £1,425,912

Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust £1,398,642 (patients/visitors £869,588, staff £519,150)

Chesterfield Royal Hospital £1,394,933 (patients/visitors £888,547, staff £506,386)

Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £1,393,000

East Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust £1,367,338

Bolton NHS Foundation Trust £ 1,346,105

West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust £1,345,358

Walsall Healthcare NHS Trust £1,345,253

Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust £1,325,945 (patients/visitors £581,933, staff £744,012)

Mid Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £1,307,000 (patients/visitors £944,000, staff £363,000)

Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust £1,276,612

Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust £1,263,801

Blackpool Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 2016 £1,259,078 (patients/visitors £376,598, staff £882,120)

Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust £1,249,272

Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £1,155,994

Poole Hospital NHS Foundation Trust £1,162,653

Bedford Hospital £1.385,000 (patients/visitors £1,136,000, staff £249,000)

University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust £1,064,388 (patients/visitors £670,859, staff £351,001)

Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust £1,063,337

James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £1,028,884

London North West Healthcare NHS Trust £968,170 (A further £1,262,194 was kept by a management company under a PFI arrangement)

Airedale NHS Foundation Trust £813,705 (patients/visitors £534,470, £279,235 staff)

Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust £953,857 (patients/visitors £853,070, staff £100,787)

Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust £946,000

Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust £916,841

Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust £832,049

Torbay and South Devon NHS Foundation Trust £795,034 (patient/visitor £588,061, staff £206,973)

Croydon Health Services NHS Trust £789,907

Stockport NHS Foundation Trust £815,724

Harrogate and District NHS Foundation Trust £761,845

Portsmouth Hospitals NHS Trust £656,639 from staff (other income goes to private firm under PFI)

Tameside Hospital £629,000

Liverpool Women’s £534,961

Dorset County Hospital £531,892

South Tyneside NHS Foundation Trust £508,897 (patients/visitors £346,591, staff £162,306)

Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (PFI in place) £497,584 after PFI

Dudley Group NHS Foundation Trust £455,000 (rest goes to PFI firm)

Imperial £434,820

North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust £367,000 (rest goes to PFI firm)

Royal Orthopaedic £337,957

The Christie NHS Foundation Trust £327,000 (patients/visitors £203,000, staff £124,000)

Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust £226,415

Whittington Hospital NHS Trust £171,387 (patient/visitors £75,227, staff £96,160)

South London and Maudsley £139,973

Walton Centre Liverpool £113,494