Wings Over Scotland blogger to pay Dugdale legal costs

A pro-independence blogger has condemned a court decision to award former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale legal costs in a failed defamation case.

Wings Over Scotland’s Stuart Campbell lost the £25,000 case in April.

Mr Campbell brought the case after the politician accused him of making homophobic remarks.

Now he has branded the court’s decision to award full legal costs – plus a 50 per cent ‘uplift’ – to Ms Dugdale as ‘incomprehensible’.

He claims on his website the final bill for the legal costs could be around £100,000. Mr Campbell has previously raised money through crowdfunding.

He said: “We’ve just received the verdict in the hearing over costs in our court case against Kezia Dugdale, and it’s an incomprehensible one.”

The defamation hearing was held at Edinburgh’s Sheriff Court earlier this year where Sheriff Nigel Ross ruled that while Ms Dugdale was incorrect to imply Mr Campbell was a homophobe, the article was covered by a defence of fair comment.

The case centred on a tweet from 2017. Mr Campbell wrote that Tory MSP Oliver Mundell, son of Scottish Secretary David Mundell who is gay, was “the sort of public speaker that makes you wish his dad had embraced his homosexuality sooner”.

Following April’s decision, Ms Dugdale said: “This ruling clearly demonstrates that every citizen is entitled to make comments as long as they are fair and reflect honestly held views.”