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BORIS JOHNSON has blasted Jim Murphy’s plans to fund 1000 new nurses in Scotland with money raised from mansion tax overwhelmingly levied in the south of England.

The Tory London Mayor accused the Scottish Labour leader of trying to “bribe” voters by saying Scotland would gain 1000 nurses from the funds raised by the mansion tax.

In a major speech yesterday Murphy said that a mansion tax in Scotland would only raise £15 million as there are fewer than 1000 homes in the country that would be affected by the annual levy on houses worth more than £2million.

But the £1.2 billion raised by the tax across the UK, and mostly in London, would give Scotland a share of the spending that could fund the NHS posts.

The plan infuriated Tories and led to a backlash on the front page of London newspapers today.

Speaking on London radio Johnson, who is standing to return to the Commons as an MP this May, said the tactic was divisive and would foster resentment of Scotland.

But Labour sources pointed out that mega-rich Johnson will himself have to pay the mansion tax on his townhouse in fashionable Islington.

(Image: DAILY RECORD)

He paid £2.3million for the property in 2009 and it is now widely believed to be worth at least £3million.

“The reason Boris hates the mansion tax is that he’s so rich he will have to pay up under it,” said one Labour insider.

Labour’s plans for the mansion tax on properties worth more than £2million have yet to be finalised.

But if the annual levy was set at 1 per cent of a house’s value over the £2million threshold, Johnson would have to fork out £10,000 a year - and possibly more if assessors valued his palatial home at even more than £3million.

Ranting Johnson said: "The Labour party embarked years ago on a quite catastrophic programme of trying to appease the Scottish nationalists by giving them ever more concessions. They created the monster of Scottish nationalism which almost led to the break-up of our country last year.

“And what’s happened now is that Labour has made a cynical calculation that they are more vulnerable in Scotland to the SNP than they are, say, in the south east or than they are in London and they’ve decided to punish the south east or to be fiscally vindictive towards the south east of England in order to try to bribe the Scots to vote Labour."

The Mayor added: "It's no way to run a country. This is no way to claim that you are the unifying force in this great country of ours. You should not be saying to one group of people: ‘it’s going to be perfectly fine, you vote for us in Scotland because we’re going to milk, we’re going to malt, we’re going to tax, mug even, squeeze those Londoners until the pips squeak’. That is a way to set up resentments and I don’t think it’s the right way forwards.

“Londoners perfectly accept that we have a duty to the rest of the country; we already export huge quantities in taxation, about £19 billion a year.

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"But I don’t think it’s right that the Labour party should be saying one thing to the Scots and standing on a completely different ticket in London.

"And if you look at what the Labour candidate for the mayoralty are saying, I think they’ll be pretty horrified by this. They’re all basically opposed to the mansion tax, which falls overwhelmingly on London and I think It’s very regrettable that Labour should use divisive tactics and should be setting up one part of the country against another. And it won’t pay off for them, by the way; it won’t pay off.”

But Murphy fired back: “The problem is that what Boris actually wants is cuts for London as well as cuts for Scotland. The mansion tax he opposes funds increased spending on the NHS in England as well as in Scotland. That increased spending based on a tax raised across the UK will benefit everyone across the country.

“The reality is that as part of the UK we pool and share resources. Wealthy people in London and the South East of England will contribute most to the mansion tax, but Aberdeen is the oil and gas capital of the UK and contributes the vast majority of that industry’s tax. That’s what being part of the larger UK is all about.”

Surprisingly London Labour MP Diane Abbot joined the attack by accusing Murphy of “expropriating” money from the capital.

But the Hackney MP was dismissed by Murphy for even forgetting his name - she called him “John” - during a radio interview on the issue.

Abbot, backed by Labour’s London mayorial hopefuls, said that Murphy was “jumping the gun in an unscrupulous way” by allocating funding that hadn’t yet been raised.

(Image: Getty/Oli Scarff)

She complained: “It is effectively a tax on London, 80 per cent of the mansion tax will come from London. The actual super wealthy probably won’t pay it.

"But there’s all sorts of people that bought houses 30 years ago in what were unfashionable parts of London, which are now worth at least a million, and Jim Murphy isn’t helping matters by firing off without consulting.”

She added: “No but there are ways of implementing it that wouldn’t hit people, retired people who happen to have houses that have risen ludicrously in price, but don’t have any income to pay a mansion tax.

"That’s all got to be thought through. Jim Murphy isn’t waiting for that. He just thinks he can buy Scottish votes with money expropriated from London.”

But Murphy responded: “I get on well with Diane but to take this argument seriously she didn’t even remember my name. I don’t need to consult Diane Abbot about what I do with the Scottish Labour Party, I am the leader of the Scottish Labour Party.

“What I am doing is arguing for the British Labour policy, it is a UK-wide tax. The way the UK works is in pooling and sharing resources.”

Record View: If Boris Johnson doesn't like a policy then it's a fair chance that it's fair and a winner