The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Dugdale admits she struggled to have any life as a politician
POLITICS: Former Scottish Labour leader reveals why she had to walk away from Holyrood
The former leader of the Scottish Labour party has said she struggled to juggle the demands of her job as a highprofile politician with a personal life.
Kezia Dugdale, who stood down as an MSP last July, joined several of her former colleagues in the Scottish Parliament to reveal the realities of managing that conflict, claiming it’s “not a normal existence”.
She has called for an examination of the culture of the UK’s political institutions to assess how family-friendly they really are.
It comes after SNP MSP Gail Ross announced that she intends to step down at the 2021 Holyrood election because she wants to watch her son grow up.
Currently, the MSP for Caithness, Sutherland and Ross, must travel more than 250 miles to spend often five days a week in Edinburgh and away from her young son.
Ms Dugdale said the death of her best friend, Gordon Aikman, who was a prominent motor neurone disease campaigner, in 2017, caused her to “reassess” a “lot of things” in her life. She said: “I was working way too hard. “I was living and breathing politics. “I wanted a balance and that meant walking away and that meant a life and seeing my friends and family and the things a normal person does.
“It’s not a normal existence”. Ms Dugdale said greater understanding is required of the role of an MSP and the time demands they face.
She said: “I struggled with work and a personal life and I lived 10 minutes away.
“The Scottish Parliament says it’s family friendly because it only sits three days a week and votes at 5pm every day.
“That’s better than the House of Commons, and that’s true, but that’s only if you think the job of a politician is to make laws and scrutinise them.
“Politicians are expected to be at cross-party groups at 6pm and community councils at 7pm along with events on Saturdays and campaigning. “It is for many people a 24/7 vocation.” Scotland can draw inspiration from the New Zealand Parliament, the former Scottish Labour leader has argued.
Ms Dugdale visited the country in 2017. It uses a similar election system to Scotland, along with being a similar size, with remote locations.
She said: “They have a rule there that the whips can cast the votes if 85% of members are present.
“I put that idea to Ken Macintosh when I was still an MSP and he wasn’t keen on it because it’s not really democratic.
“He was worried about the impact that would have.”
However, Ms Dugdale argued that it is very rare that members rebel within the Scottish Parliament.
Proxy voting has also recently fallen under the spotlight after Labour MSP Jenny Marra, who is expecting her second child, wrote to Ken Macintosh, the Scottish Parliament’s presiding officer, calling on him to ensure that female MSPs can still vote while they are taking time off to care for their children.
The only system in place currently for missing votes is an informal pairing agreement that every party signed up to.
Dundee-based Ms Marra said: “I think the Scottish Parliament needs to do a lot more to make sure that women with children can be represented across the parties in our national parliament.
She said: “The reality is wherever MSPs are in the country they are working, and doing the work of their constituents.”