I’m a CelebrIty labour fallout Comment

Last night’s episode of I’m A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! started with a video montage of campers trying to smell their own armpits as they debated their personal hygiene.

“I gave you a whiff,” said one competitor as he negotiated consent to sniff another.

Quite how Kezia Dugdale, a high-performing member of the intelligentsia, will get on with this bunch is unclear. Even the weekly meeting of the Labour MSP group now interacts on a more profound level.

Watching from the sidelines – Ms Dugdale has still not entered the camp – the ex-Harris Academy pupil must be wondering what she is doing thousands of miles away in the Australian jungle in blatant defiance of her employers.

Her decision to go rogue has triggered untold hysteria in Scottish Labour and she is likely to face mounting pressure to sacrifice an ever increasing proportion of her fee to charity when she returns to face the music. What’s more she is “terrified” of spiders and will despair without her daily dose of caffeine, says her Fife-based SNP girlfriend Jenny Gilruth.

At least Ms Dugdale avoided suspension when her colleagues met to decide her fate at their weekly get-together. The decision was not a speedy one. Holyrood catering staff had their patience tested as they waited to retrieve the washing-up from the meeting room.

When the new Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard finally emerged he marched tight-lipped past the gathering of journalists.

His first four days as leader have been dominated about how he will deal with his predecessor.

And he will likely face his first weeks in the role being upstaged on a nightly basis by Ms Dugdale, as she is broadcast to millions of viewers every evening and his reform agenda plays second fiddle.

The ex-Labour leader in Scotland has kicked up a stink that will linger for a long time to come.