Scottish Labour will recruit 1,000 extra nurses using funds generated by a proposed mansion tax, Jim Murphy has pledged.

The leader announced his party's first manifesto promise as the election battle moved up a gear.

He told an audience of supporters and civic leaders in Edinburgh he would hire 1,000 nurses over and above staffing levels in May next year.

The £30million scheme would be paid for out of Scotland's share of the mansion tax, an annual levy on homes worth more than £2million, which Labour will introduce if they win the general election.

The mansion tax mainly affects properties in London and is expected to raise £1.2billion for the Exchequer.

In their UK manifesto, Labour are promising a £2.5bn fund to "save" the NHS in England, a £1.1bn crackdown on City tax loopholes and a £150m levy on tobacco companies.

Mr Murphy said: "The NHS is so crucial and yet the SNP government have cut the number of nurses in Scotland's NHS.

"We will fund it with redistributive taxes collected across the UK, most of it from outside of Scotland, which is something the SNP simply cannot match."

To applause, he added: "Scotland has two parties telling it they are powerless to make this sort of change.

"For the Tories, the excuse is always the deficit. For the Nationalists, the excuse is always the Union.

"If they can't make a difference they should move over for people who can."

According to the latest NHS figures, there are 58,407 nurses and midwives in Scotland. The statistic is up from 57,049 in September 2007, the first figure issued after the SNP took power.

A Labour spokesman insisted the total fell by 2000 during Nicola Sturgeon's spell as health secretary, which ended in 2012, and said there remained 2000 nursing vacancies in the NHS in Scotland.

The Royal College of Nursing welcomed Labour's commitment to increasing staffing levels.

RCN Scotland director Theresa Fyffe said: "We have consistently called for increased investment in our nursing workforce to help relieve the pressure on services caused by increased demand day in day out."

East Renfrewshire MP Mr Murphy said a Labour-led Scottish government would work with the NHS and RCN on how best to deploy the promised extra nurses.

He highlighted shortages in mental health services but added: "The pressure on the NHS is limitless."

Mr Murphy vowed last year to follow UK Labour's lead and raise the top rate of income tax in Scotland if he becomes First Minister.

The move, which will become possible when income tax is fully devolved under the Smith proposals, would affect 16,000 Scots earning more than £150,000 and would raise up to £250m per year.

Mr Murphy has also promised an intensive effort to turn around the country's 20 most under-performing secondary schools.

Angus Robertson, the SNP's Westminster leader, said: "Since the SNP took office, the number of qualified nurses and midwives in Scotland's NHS has increased by around 1,700. And the SNP is already committed to passing on Barnett consequentials from health spending to Scotland's NHS, so this announcement does not promise any new money."

In his speech, Mr Murphy repeated Scottish Labour's key election message that a vote for the SNP would increase the Conservatives' chances of victory on May 7.

"It is a fact that the SNP simply cannot escape for the next 121 days that any seat they take from Scottish Labour in the general election makes it less likely that Labour will be the biggest party."