Kezia Dugdale voted off I’m a Celebrity
Kezia Dugdale’s foray into reality television has come to an end after viewers decided to evict the former leader of Scottish Labour from ‘I’m A Celebrity ... Get Me Out Of Here!’
Ms Dugdale had been widely tipped to be evicted by the watching public.
A week and a half after she entered the jungle in Australia she is now on her way back to the day job.
The 36-year-old list MSP for the Lothians was the bookies’ favourite to go in the first eviction on
Friday but made it to the next stage.
She had come under fire during her stay in the jungle, which started two days after most of her other camp mates, alongside comic Iain Lee, who viewers have warmed to.
Ms Dugdale’s friend, the former Scottish Labour Party head of communications, Alan Roden, flew out to the jungle to meet her for the evic- tion. Her partner, Jenny Gilruth, a current SNP MSP, was unable to make it.
The regional MSP for the Lothians , who is reportedly being paid £100,000 for her appearance on the ITV show, has said she will give a portion of her fee to charity but has refused to say how much.
Speaking to the show’s presenters after the eviction Ant and Dec, Ms Dugdale said she “would’ve been happy to stay” but was also “delighted to be going home”.
The former Scottish Labour leader said: “I feel right as rain. Relieved. I would be happy to stay but also happy to go.
“The boredom in there’s the killer, you’d think it’d be the hunger, but it’s the boredom.”
Ms Dugdale described her camp mates as “huge personalities” and said she felt she fitted in, despite being “quite a quiet and reserved person most of the time”.
On who will emerge as this year’s winner she said: “I think Amir [Khan] is going to win, but I’d like one of the girls to win.”
Ms Dugdale entered the jungle in Queensland last Thursday alongside the likes of Stanley Johnson, the father of foreign secretary, Boris Johnson.
She has been criticised by some viewers as well as her fellow campmates for sleeping too often and struggling to complete her first Bushtucker Trial, a challenge in which she was asked to crawl through tanks of meal worms, crickets, and cockroaches.
According to reports, producers of the programme were also left underwhelmed by her appearances, despite basing most of her first week around a political theme, with a ‘jungle Prime Minister’ being elected. Ms Dugdale has also been criticised by some of her peers at Holyrood.