I WAS recently having a break in Cornwall. I read the local newspaper. Every page until the middle had stories about cuts. Cuts to education, cuts to the NHS, cuts to the council budget. Cuts, cuts, cuts.

As I was reading it, I realised how I am getting so frustrated with the increasing inequality and injustice in this country as a result of these cuts. A frustration I know is shared by many, including many of my fellow nurses and many others who work in our nation’s most cherished institution, the National Health Service.

The recent Budget did nothing to value or reward nursing and NHS staff. Chancellor Philip Hammond chose to simply ignore us. I think he hopes nurses will just quietly go away.

As a union member, I became involved in the Royal College of Nursing’s “scrap the cap” campaign last year, fighting for fair pay for nurses.

I made a petition, which gained over 105,000 signatures which forced a debate in Parliament. We had crossparty support, even from Tories. Health Minister Philip Dunne MP exclaimed: “We know nurses need pay rise, but these are not normal times.”

I sat and thought about this, about what “not normal times means” and, yes, he is right. These are not normal times. But the nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants did not cause the financial crash, yet we are the ones being punished and wrung out to dry.

Our salaries dripping dry, year after year. It does not make any sense to me, and now with the Tories calling a snap general election, a Tory victory may mean five more years of this.

Nurses have been forced into a corner, with so many living in real hardship. The Royal College of Nursing reports that since 2010, there has been a 50 per cent rise in nurses applying for hardship grants and loans. With one in four of those being for food or rent.

Morale is at rock bottom. My friend, who came back into nursing after leaving, as they missed dedicating their lives to others, now lives off of beans on toast to be able to pay her mortgage.

How sad is that? A nurse in their thirties who will be forced to sell her home unless the government scraps the cap and gives us the pay rise that we deserve.

Many of us have thought about leaving or have wondered: “Why did I chose to do this?” Nursing is my dream, may I add. You see nursing isn’t about the money, but compassion alone does not pay the bills.

Despite all our lobbying, this government has chosen to ignore us again and again. It is perfectly clear our pay “award” will be 1 per cent or less.

The Chancellor may have the impression that we will just go away quietly. But I can tell you, he is wrong. I for one, along with many others I know, will campaign relentlessly until we get the best for nurses.

More broadly, in the Budget the funding awarded to the NHS was pitiful, and I’m really concerned that we will see years more of cuts if we don’t vote the Tories out.

To give another example, in the Spending Review in 2015, the government cut the bursaries for nursing, midwifery and associated healthcare professional students.

We shouted, we roared, we protested, we lobbied because we knew what a deterrent charging students up to £64,000 to train would be on the future workforce of our NHS.

We gave clear evidence, from surveys, to impact assessments, to research from all over the world. But guess what? The government did not listen.

So what has happened? There has been a 23 per cent drop in applications for nursing in 2017 alone. In the Budget the government could have reversed these dangerous cuts and brought back the bursary. The bursary should not be seen as a cost but an investment in the health and wellbeing of us all.

Our student nurses are worth gold and should be nurtured, and it’s welcome that Labour is committed to bringing back the bursary.

The Tories’ Budget and policies only ever focus on wealth as financial contribution. But that is not what wealth is to me. They see those who do not earn millions as second-class citizens, we do not really matter.

This has to stop. We need a Budget that nurtures real wealth — education, religion, equality, health, culture and diversity. These are contributions we put into society.

Only with Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour will our NHS and other public services be properly funded, with bursaries for NHS students, so we can recruit the workforce we need. With the pay cap lifted, we can reward public-sector workers with fair pay.

Under Labour, with the NHS getting the funding it deserves, our patients can get the care they need and we can do our jobs, so people are not dying on trolleys and staff are not grey with exhaustion.

Vote Labour in June to save our NHS.

• This article was based on a speech Danielle Tiplady made at a recent Labour Assembly Against Austerity rally. You can follow LAAA at www.twitter.com/labourassembly and at www.facebook.com/labourassembly.againstausterity.