During a press conference this morning, the Lib Dem leader announced a new plan to invest in hospitals, social care and support family carers.

Davey said the plan would ‘get people out of hospital more quickly, and help keep them out of hospital safely through a combination of reserving places in care homes, funding more care packages for people after they leave hospital and supporting family carers properly to look after their loved ones at home'.

The Lib Dem leader said the plan would ‘make six thousand extra hospital beds available – to finally end the corridor crisis in A&E this year'.

He said the package would be funded by scrapping the US trade deal which he said would cost the UK an extra £3 bin a year.

Davey also called for a new law to end 12-hour waits, enshrined in the NHS Constitution and a legal duty on the health secretary to deliver it.

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A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: ‘We have invested an extra £26 bn in our NHS, but it will take time to turn around the mess we inherited.

‘Corridor care is unacceptable. That's why this Government is tackling the situation by delivering 500,000 more vaccinations compared to last year, building new same day emergency centres, mental health crisis centres, and deploying 500 brand new ambulances.

‘In addition, we've struck a deal on medicine pricing that puts patients first and strengthens our life sciences sector, all without taking essential funding from our frontline services.'

​Nuffield Trust chief executive, Thea Stein said adding a new target to the NHS Constitution to end 12-hour waits should be ‘met with some caution as the NHS is long past the point where simply putting something in the Constitution means it can be meaningfully prioritised and achieved'.

She welcomed the Lib Dems' focus on social care but warned ‘a focus on discharge alone would be short-sighted and addresses the symptom but not the cause'.

‘Extra money would be better invested more generally into strengthening social care that supports people at home,' Stein said.

She added: ‘The Liberal Democrats are right to note the amount of money needed to cover the Government's concessions to the USA, after pressure on the UK to pay more for new branded medicines. As the Government has not provided additional funding to cover higher medicines prices, money will need to be diverted away from better value NHS care, such as A&E services. However, even if the unfunded pharmaceutical deal was undone, the Liberal Democrats would still need to find a funding source for their commitments to avoid cutting existing services.'

Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, said: ‘Ed Davey makes a very good point that much of the pressure on hospitals could be relieved by engaging with social care and ensuring that people are discharged swiftly when they have finished their acute treatment. If we supported both families and the care sector more effectively, we could significantly relieve the pressure on hospitals. Ed Davey's plan is both sensible and achievable.'