The Press and Journal (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire)
Dugdale has Labour in a rumble over ITV’s jungle
I’mACelebrity: Decision‘ludicrous’
Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale’s decision to appear on I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! is utterly ludicrous, a fellow MSP has said.
Neil Findlay said her decision to head to Australia to take part in the ITV reality show demeans politics.
Her successor as Scottish Labour leader, Richard Leonard, has confirmed the party’s MSPs are to consider whether to suspend her for going to the jungle.
However, Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn has said she should not be suspended and that it is her choice.
Mr Findlay, a regional MSP for Lothian, said politicians should be working for their constituents, not jetting off to the jungle.
He said: “I think it’s utterly ludicrous, a ludicrous position. We have a situation where we’re in the run up to the budget in Scotland, where local government is on its knees, where the NHS is showing pressures like never before, when people’s living standards are falling and they expect their MPs MSPs, councillors, elected representatives to be in fighting on their behalf and I don’t think people would expect them to jet off around the world and sit around the camp fire eating a kangaroo’s appendage. I think it demeans politics when people get involved in that.”
Ms Dugdale became the leader after the party’s trouncing in the 2015 election, when it lost 40 of the 41 seats it had held north of the border to the SNP. She stepped down suddenly in August, prompting the leadership contest.
Mr Leonard said he was “a bit disappointed” by Ms Dugdale’s decision.
He said suspension was not his initial reaction but added: “I think it’s something the group will have to consider.”
But Mr Corbyn said: “It’s her choice to go on I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here! I don’t think it’s appropriate to suspend someone from the party for doing that.”
Ms Dugdale’s decision to take part in the reality show has also prompted concern among her party colleagues in the north-east.
Labour MSP for the north-east, Lewis Macdonald, said: “I will speak to my colleagues before passing judgment but this certainly seems like a very surprising development, and one that will have caused a good deal of concern.”
Scottish Labour has not officially commented on the
“Beingacelebrity isverydifferent frombeinga politician”
matter, but a party source argued that it would be a “fantastic opportunity” for the MSP to talk about policies before a wide audience.
However, Mr Macdonald dismissed that notion as “an odd suggestion”.
He said: “Members of parliament are elected to speak on behalf of their constituents in parliament, that is what we should all be doing.”
Mr Macdonald’s wife, Sandra, is one of nine Aberdeen councillors Ms Dugdale suspended from Scottish Labour after they ignored orders to abandon a power-sharing deal with the Conservatives following May’s council elections.
Last night, she said: “This isn’t something I would do myself, being a celebrity is very different from being a politician.”
Ms Dugdale’s dad, Jeff Dugdale, conceded via Twitter that her latest move had caused some “irritation”.