SCOTTISH Labour will recruit 1000 extra nurses using funds generated by the party's proposed mansion tax, Jim Murphy has pledged.

The Scottish Labour 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 1000 nurses over and above staffing levels in May next year, when Labour hopes to remove the SNP from power.

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 - which mainly affects properties in London - is expected to raise £1.2billion for the Exchequer.

In their UK manifesto, Labour are promising a £2.5billion fund to "save" the NHS in England, funded by the mansion tax, a £1.1billion crackdown on City tax loopholes and a £150million 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.

"This is a uniquely Labour pledge for a Labour priority.

"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 number 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 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."

The pledge to recruit extra nurses follows two initiatives outlined by Mr Murphy last year.

He vowed 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 £250million 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 1700 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 whatsoever."

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.

As reported yesterday, he reached out to 190,000 voters who backed Labour in the 2010 general election but voted Yes in last year's independence referendum.

He said the group, who have not voted SNP and are mostly men from Glasgow and the West of Scotland, were "the most important voters in the UK" and would decide the outcome.

"These are the first voters we will speak to," he said.

"We'll do it not by re-running the referendum, we'll talk about the type of change they want to see."

Labour is planning a "January offensive" to contact the target group - dubbed Glasgow Man - by letter and with doostep visits, in a bid to make up ground on the SNP, who lead their main rivals by 20 points in the polls.

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