When a nurse of 26 years asked Theresa May to lift the cap on NHS pay during a pre-election debate, she was told “there isn’t a magic money tree.”

Well, it turns out there is and Theresa May has given it a good shake as she desperately tries to prop-up her weak and wobbly minority government.

The Tory has just signed a deal with the DUP worth £1.5 billion in order to secure the support of their 10 MPs.

That is the exact cost of a pay rise for all 1.2 million the overworked and underpaid heroes running the NHS in England – who have had their pay capped since the Tories took power in 2010.

Institute of Fiscal Studies director Paul Johnson calculated that it would cost £500 million for every 1% you increase the pay of NHS staff.

So £1.5 billion is the amount needed to fund the 3% pay rise Labour promised them before the general election.

That policy was predictably savaged by the Daily Mail – we hope to see the same treatment given to the May-DUP deal:

It’s official: 10 DUP MPs are worth more to Theresa May than a million doctors, nurses and midwives…