LABOUR leadership candidate Andy Burnham has told  members in Camden that there was a "good principle" behind Ed Balls' pre-election mansion tax idea but the party blundered in how they presented the idea.

The contender to follow in Ed Miliband's footsteps spoke to an audience of around 40 at Netley School in Euston on Friday evening.

In a question and answer session, Mr Burnham was asked how he would make tax fairer.

He suggested a land value tax would be the best way forward to lift the burden on families "in the middle and below".

"I think the mansion tax was a too narrow version of it," he said. "There was a kind of good principle there but I think it was wrongly conceived and I personally feel the 'mansions tax' label was a mistake. I think it does hark back to the 1970s politics of envy. I don't think that works."

Labour's plan to bring in an extra tax for homeowners with properties worth more than £2 million proved highly-divisive in areas like Camden where asset-rich, cash-poor residents raised concerns about the policy. The suggestion, fronted by Mr Balls, caused disagreements even within Labour's own ranks.

Mr Burnham, who has been endorsed by new Holborn and St Pancras MP Keir Starmer, said: "A land value tax would have been a much bolder thing to do. It's definitely still on my agenda. I think part of the answer to winning people back is taxing wealth and assets more fairly than we are at the moment so that we can take taxes off families in the middle and lower down because it appears to me that we are still overtaxing individuals and overtaxing labour and undertaxing the wealth that has conglomerated at the top of society. It needs careful thinking through but the land value tax is still an important part of my thinking."

A member of the audience shouted 'money-laundering' when Mr Burnham said that wealthy overseas investors put their money in the London housing market as a good way to make a "tax free investment".

He replied: "I'll let you say that, but you're probably right. It is also the case that it doesn't lead to the most productive use of land. It allows to build up land banks which actually don't make sure that land is used for the best possible purposes."

Mr Burnham is contesting the leadership race with Yvette Cooper, Liz Kendall and Jeremy Corbyn.