Andy Burnham torn apart over plan to send HMRC agents into homes of Britons: 'It's nanny state!'

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Homeowners who refuse an inspector entry will be hit with a fine of up to £200

Andy Burnham has been blasted over plans to send HMRC agents into the homes of Britons to assess their value and whether they are liable for mansion tax.

Speaking to GB News, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat declared the move "un-British" and another example of "nanny state" from the Labour Government.

The Prime Minister is set to send HMRC valuation agents into homes to assess whether they are worth over £2million pounds and therefore liable for the "mansion tax" levy.

If homeowners refuse an inspection by HMRC, they can be fined up to £200.

Discussing the move on GB News, Mr Tugendhat criticised the plan, branding it "extraordinary".

He said: "It's pretty extraordinary, isn't it? The idea that you're going to have somebody knocking on the door of every house in the UK and trying to check out whether your house is worth a pound more than your neighbours.

"The idea is so un-British, it is so nanny state, and it is so interventionist state."

The Tory MP argued that "only a true socialist" could have come up with the policy.

He said: "Only a true socialist could have come up with it. It is completely insane, because we all know what's going to happen.

"We're going to have people who are going to get arrested for not allowing some jobsworth from Whitehall to snoop around their house.

"And how is that fair? Englishmen, Scotsmen, Welshmen and Irishmen should not be faced with the bureaucratic hand of the state trying to get through their front door to tell them what they owe. It's completely ridiculous."

Turning the discussion to the recent cyber attack on a British power plant, Mr Tugendhat said it is an example of "Iran demonstrating its capability".

He said: "This isn't some sort of random hack by a couple of people in Tehran. This is the Iranian state demonstrating clearly to us that they have the capability to take down our power grid.

"What they're trying to do is they're trying to show us that we are vulnerable and that they can strike back."

He stressed: If I were in Government right now, I would be having the intelligence chiefs, the agency heads into the Cabinet Office and making it absolutely clear that I expect them to prioritise national resilience over everything.

"I expect them to make absolutely certain that electricity plants, water plants, other sort of areas of critical national infrastructure are appropriately protected, not just from cyber attacks, but also from the kind of sabotage that we've seen Russia conducting in other European countries and making sure that we're safe."

The Tory MP concluded: "Now, when I was the security minister, one of the things we created was the NSA, which is MI5's, as it were, public facing branch. It's it's an element of MI5 that helps companies keep themselves safe.

"I would be making sure that they were reaching out to all those areas of critical national infrastructure and making sure that they are safe, because it's great that Andy Burnham in Ukraine, it's fantastic that we're supporting Ukraine, but we must be safe at home."

In a statement, a Government spokesman said: "The public understands that we are addressing a longstanding unfairness, where a Band D home in Darlington pays more in council tax than a £10m mansion in Mayfair.

"The Valuation Office has extensive experience valuing domestic property, and will use a wide range of evidence to determine bandings."