So much for the sisterhood... the gloves are off and now it’s personal
EVEN in the heat of battle – in the cut and thrust of Holyrood debates – Kezia Dugdale usually manages to project a sense of warmth and good grace.
Politics, she seems to be saying, may be a tough game but there should always be a place for respect, even friendship.
Make no mistake – all that has changed.
After two bruising weeks – during which she has been accused of weakness and indecisiveness on policies, while also enduring what she regards as a ‘dirty tricks’ campaign against her by the SNP – the Scottish Labour leader has cast aside her customary good nature.
In a bombshell interview with the Scottish Mail on Sunday, the 34-year-old – clearly wounded and upset – launched vitriolic attacks on Nicola Sturgeon and Ruth Davidson, declaring she has ‘lost respect’ for them because of how they have acted in the campaign.
She claimed the First Minister is trying to win the election on a ‘cloak of celebrity’ rather than coming up with new policies, and accused Scottish Conservative leader Miss Davidson of ‘cheap politics’ by suggesting Miss Dugdale doesn’t back Scotland’s place in the UK.
Her barbed comments mark a sudden breakdown in the relationship between the leaders of the main parties at Holyrood.
Previously the three women have spoken of chatting together while applying make-up before rallies or TV debates, and before Wimbledon they even joked on social media about all meeting up to watch Andy Murray in action.
In stark contrast, Miss Dugdale, referring to Miss Sturgeon and Miss Davidson, said: ‘My respect for both of them has diminished in the last couple of weeks: Ruth because of the way she behaves on the issues of the Union and her secret plans to tax middle-class families and Nicola for the dirty tricks campaign that is coming to the fore.’
On other issues, Miss Dugdale was equally bullish. Despite facing growing pressure on her leadership of a party in turmoil, she defiantly vowed she will still be at the helm whatever the result of next month’s election.
She pledged to target Conservative voters – claiming the Tories are putting the future of the Union at risk through policies that are ‘setting Scottish and English people against each other’.
And she claimed that Tory plans will damage the middle-classes more than her own proposals to raise taxes.
The comments come after two weeks of taunts over a U-turn on her tax proposals, a ‘watering down’ of her opposition to independence and the revelation that she once applied for a job with the SNP.
But she is resolutely unimpressed with the way opponents have jumped on her apparent errors, including when she admitted in an interview with a magazine, published last week, that it is ‘not inconceivable’ that she could call for Scotland to leave the UK if it meant remaining in the EU following a Brexit.
That interview led to Miss Davidson claiming her Labour rival ‘cannot be trusted’ to defend the Union.
Describing her answer as ‘a hypothetical on a hypothetical on a hypothetical’, Miss Dugdale said she had no regrets over the comments. ‘What I regret is the way that Ruth Davidson behaves on the issue of the Union,’ she said.
‘She jumps up and down and throws petrol on these situations and inflames them in a way which I think is really unhelpful because the vast majority of people in Scotland want to move on from the referendum.’
Miss Dugdale also claimed the Tories are not being honest about taxes. She said: ‘I don’t think it is honest to say you will protect family finances when you want to reintroduce prescription charges and tuition fees. There are lots of middle class families across Scotland who will be hugely out of pocket as a consequence of that.’
The latest opinion poll, published last week, showed Labour trailing the SNP by 31 percentage points in constituency voting intentions.
And as well as denouncing the Nats over the job application leak, she went on to attack Nicola Sturgeon for adopting a much more moderate strategy on tax than she promised just a year ago, when she railed against austerity.
Miss Dugdale said: ‘I’m not sure who or what Nicola Sturgeon stands up for any more.
‘She is trying to say as little as possible and trying to rise through this election on a cloak of celebrity.’
There have been claims that Miss Dugdale’s leadership could abruptly end next month if there is a Labour disaster at the polls.
Asked if she felt under pressure, she said: ‘No, not at all. I’m absolutely committed to the plan I have in place, I get tremendous support from my colleagues and party activists the length and breadth of the country.’
Does that mean that, whatever the result next month, she will not be going anywhere?
‘Correct,’ she says with a steely glare.
‘My respect for them both has diminished’