INFURIATED free market lobbyists bewailed George Osborne's flash tax on high-end homes yesterday for allegedly damaging their plans to snap up a £6 million Georgian mansion.

Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) director Mark Littlewood slammed the tax, which took effect overnight, as "irritating" during the group's post-autumn statement briefing.

And he moaned that it could affect his own organisation, which plans to buy a multimillion-pound Grade II listed home at 4 Lord North Street, Westminster.

Mr Littlewood said the rise in stamp duty for properties on the market for over £2,100,000 has put thousands on the bill and caused him a "major headache."

The luxury pad is being advertised through upmarket estate agents Hathaways.

Its website describes the six-bed property as a "Georgian 'double house' built between 1720 and 1725" and boasts that it has "one of the largest private gardens that Hathaways has ever sold in Westminster."

Mr Osborne announced the £18,750 hike in the higher rate of stamp duty in response to Labour's popular mansion tax.

The Tory Chancellor boasted it would "help 98 per cent of people."

Apparently claiming himself as a 2 per center, Mr Littlewood said: "If you are able to proudly announce that this change will assist 98 per cent of people you don't have to be a prize-winning economist to know that 2 per cent of people are going to be hit extremely hard indeed."