Nick Clegg has said that the Welsh NHS could benefit from up to £450m extra under his party’s plans.

The Liberal Democrat leader said they are committed to an additional £8bn a year for the NHS in England by 2020. This would mean an extra £450m a year for Wales.

Accusing the Labour party of failing to support Wales’ health service, Mr Clegg argued the extra investment could be used, amongst other things, to support the leader of the Welsh Lib Dems - Kirsty Williams - and a pledge to increase the number of nurses on hospital wards.

He said: "Labour can't be trusted with our public services because you can't have a world class NHS or a world class education system without that foundation of a strong economy.

They wasted their chance and if they get another shot at power in Westminster they will waste our money again.

The cuts of the last few years are a direct result of Labour’s failure in Government, borrowing too much and leaving us dangerously over-exposed to the financial crisis.

Not only have we had no apology from them for wrecking the economy, they clearly haven’t learned their lesson either.

Labour's plan means they will borrow £70bn more than us by 2020, as well as spending an extra £4bn just paying the interest on our debt – money that could be spent on schools and hospitals instead.

The Conservatives have absolutely no intention of sticking to the balanced economic approach we have taken in coalition – and they're quite open about it.

They promise massive cuts to public spending, much deeper than necessary to balance the books, with no end in sight. Austerity forever.

Yes, there will have to be more cuts to finish the job of fixing the economy, but because we will also ask the richest in society to pay their fair share and end austerity in three years’ time when the deficit has been cleared, we will not have to make the deep cuts the Conservatives demand.

Our plan means that in the last year of the next parliament we will cut £38bn less than the Conservatives.

And what's more George Osborne has singled out only one section of society to pay for their ideological cuts plan – not their friends in big business and big houses, but the poorest working age people in Wales and the whole United Kingdom.

With Liberal Democrats there is light at the end of the tunnel. After 2017/18, we will invest again in our public services as the economy grows.

That means we can commit to giving the NHS the money it needs to stay strong. For the NHS in England that means an additional £8bn a year by 2020.

And that means an extra £450m a year for Wales by the end of the next parliament.

It is up to the Welsh government to decide how to spend that money, as it should be.

But make no mistake, the Welsh health service needs that cash injection.

I want to see that money used to improve the Welsh health service, spent on Welsh health priorities. But as Welsh Labour has shown, that is not guaranteed.

After years of Labour mismanagement, there are plenty of pressing priorities.

Labour has left the people of Wales with the worst ambulance response rates in the UK, longer waiting times for vital treatments and unequal access to the medications they need.

Wales needs better treatment for people with mental health problems, for too long regarded as second class citizens by Labour on both sides of the border.

And as Kirsty has said over and over, Wales needs more nurses.

Welsh nurses care for more patients per member of staff than anywhere else in the UK.

They are over-stretched and unable to spend the time with each patient that they need.

Kirsty has rightly put safe staffing levels for nurses front and centre of the health debate. Extra investment in the Welsh health service can be used to increase staffing levels, but it needs the Welsh Government to do it.

The people of Wales deserve better than Labour."