THE row over Labour's plan to fund Scots NHS nurses from its proposed mansion tax has intensified after a bizarre stunt which saw a Tory candidate for London mayor jet north and ask homeowners whether they would be happy to pay the charge to boost the health service in the English capital.

 

Ivan Massow, who is hoping to win his party's nomination and replace Boris Johnson in 2016, yesterday arrived in Edinburgh to knock on the doors of middle class properties and quiz residents over the proposals, set out by Scottish Labour leader Jim Murphy this week.

The self-made multi-millionaire accused Mr Murphy of "picking a fight with London" by pledging to use cash raised through the tax, which would be in force UK-wide but in practice apply largely in the south of England, to fund 1,000 extra nurses.

Mr Massow could have been forgiven for expecting a reception as cold as the Scottish temperature that was evidently a shock to his system, especially after expressing the view that public spending should be cut north of the border and spent in England instead.

However, not long after arriving at a property he had identified as a typical example of one that would have cost millions had it been in London - but was available for a mere £760,000 in Scotland's capital meaning it would be well below the £2m mansion tax threshold proposed by Labour - he made his retreat, declaring that Mr Murphy had given Scots an unjustified bad reputation down south.

"They seem charming and empathetic," he said, after receiving a warm welcome in two of the most affluent areas of Edinburgh - Newington and The Grange, where he visited the aptly-named Mansionhouse Road.

Lisa Elsetole had agreed that the mansion tax was "really unfair" and said she was crossing her fingers that it would not be brought in. "It seems a punitive thing," she said. "I know about Jim Murphy talking this nonsense and it really bothers me."

Another said they believed the Labour Party had "gone wild", saying they had bought their home for well below £1m but were now worried that the mansion tax would affect them. No-one he spoke to agreed that they lived in a mansion.

Mr Massow said that Mr Murphy's plan, which has also been condemned by Labour candidates for London Mayor but broadly hailed as a smart move by political commentators north of the border, had proved "huge news" in London.

"It's really upset people," he added. "We don't get free prescriptions and our NHS is bursting at the seams. The idea Jim Murphy has that London is a bottomless pit of resources is hurtful and offensive.

"You have to remember that the Barnett formula gives Scotland an extra £1593 per head of public spending every year. London exports income to the rest of country and is worse off. We just want equality. If anything, public spending should go up in London and down in Scotland."

Later yesterday Mr Massow, who reportedly bought a house in London's Clerkenwell for £1.2m in 2009 and sold it for £5m in December 2011, released a blog in which he drew comparisons between living costs in London and what he referred to as "Vote Yes Glasgow".

He wrote that he was proud that the Scottish nurse who was diagnosed with Ebola after treating patients in Sierra Leone, Pauline Cafferkey, had been flown to a hospital in London. He accused Scotland of preferring to use London's specialist NHS units while spending its money "bribing its people with fee prescriptions instead".

He claimed in the blog he was going to spend the day knocking on doors in Edinburgh, but in fact visited around half a dozen homes.

Scottish Labour's Deputy Leader Kezia Dugdale said the party would "take no lectures from day-tripper Tories".

She added: "Boris Johnson and other London-based Tories can attack Scottish Labour's plans for an extra 1,000 NHS nurses all they like but it's the right thing to do."