THE peer who predicted devolution would kill nationalism "stone dead", a businessman who went to court to gag an SNP councillor, and a supporter of ill-fated leader Wendy Alexander are among the donors who bankrolled Jim Murphy's bid to be Scottish Labour's new boss, it has emerged.

Lord George Robertson, the hawkish former general secretary of Nato who last year said Scottish independence would be "cataclysmic", gave Murphy's leadership bid £2000, it has emerged.

Alan Massie, a businessman from Aberdeen who took out an interdict against a local Nationalist councillor, and who gave £15,000 to the Better Together campaign in the referendum, gave £14,500.

John McGuire, boss of the Paisley-based Phoenix Car Company, who helped fund ­Alexander's doomed leadership in 2007, gave £20,000.

Holland House Property Investments, a company run by chartered surveyors Alan Watt from Strathaven and Alison Taylor from Kilmacolm, gave the rent-free use of an office worth £4000.

Murphy, the MP for East ­Renfrewshire who became party leader on December 13, declared the ­donations in his parliamentary register of interests last month but did not publicise them. The House of Commons made them public last week.

Tellingly, none of Murphy's published donations are from trade unions, many of which regarded him as a toxic Blairite.

SNP MSP James Dornan said: "From hiring a new Chief of Staff [John McTernan] who is openly in favour of NHS privatisation to taking donations from Lord Robertson - who favours weapons of mass destruction on the Clyde - it seems Jim Murphy is making a habit of keeping questionable company."

Lord Robertson campaigned alongside Murphy in the referendum as part of the latter's 100 days in 100 towns tour.

In 1995, as shadow Scottish ­secretary, Robertson tried to ­reassure devo-sceptics in his party that a Scottish Parliament would not boost the SNP, but would "kill nationalism stone dead" - words that have come back to haunt him.

He was an outspoken advocate of a No vote in the referendum, ­declaring that the break-up of the UK would be "cataclysmic in geopolitical terms".

Developer Massie has given Labour more than £200,000. In 2012, he obtained a court order against the SNP and former Aberdeen city council leader Callum McCaig to stop them disseminating ­material he alleged defamed him. He also sued the SNP and McCaig for £20,000 each. However, the SNP and McCaig appealed to the Court of Session, which lifted the gagging order on the grounds that its terms had been too restrictive. Massie finally dropped his civil suit last year after an "unreserved" apology from McCaig.

John McGuire is also a long-term Labour backer. He was one of several donors to give £995 to Wendy Alexander's 2007 Labour leadership campaign. A gratuitous victory tour given she was unopposed, the campaign ultimately forced the MSP to quit as leader as it drew in an illegal donation from ­businessman Paul Green, who did not have a vote in the UK.

Katy Clark, the left-wing North Ayrshire and Arran MP who ran unsuccessfully for Scottish Labour's deputy leadership, has declared about £12,000 in donations to her campaign - all from unions.

Lothians MSP Kezia Dugdale, who won the deputy leadership, received £2000 from Community, one of the few unions to endorse either her or Murphy. Donors of Neil ­Findlay, who ran against Murphy, have yet to be named, although he is understood to have had substantial funding from trade unions.

A spokesman for Murphy declined to comment.