Kezia Dugdale refuses to comment on speculation she will quit Holyrood in weeks
Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale has refused to say if she is set to quit Holyrood in a matter of weeks.
A spokesman for the Lothian MSP declined to comment on a newspaper report suggesting she could step down from the role at the end of the parliamentary term in June.
It comes after a source close to Ms Dugdale was reported in the Sunday Times as saying she would make a “departure announcement shortly”.
Ms Dugdale became Scottish Labour leader in August 2015, after Jim Muprhy quit in the wake of a disastrous general election campaign which saw the party lose all but one of the seats it had held north of the border.
She quit as leader two years later, with left-winger Richard Leonard voted in as her successor.
Huge, heartfelt “thank yous” due to so many people across the political spectrum who supported me throughout this recent court case.
Here’s what I have to say following the ruling in my favour today: pic.twitter.com/e6ncVpxpM3
— Kezia Dugdale (@kezdugdale) April 17, 2019
Ms Dugdale, who is in a relationship with SNP MSP Jenny Gilruth, has long been unhappy about her party’s stance on Brexit, describing herself as being “proudly pro-European”.
Earlier this month she successfully defended a defamation case brought by a pro-independence blogger over a claim he wrote “homophobic tweets”.
Wings Over Scotland blogger Stuart Campbell sued the Lothian MSP over a column she wrote in the Daily Record in 2017.
The newspaper funded her legal action after the Labour Party withdrew support.
Ms Dugdale later revealed the court case had resulted in her breaking contact with her independence supporting father, telling The Record: “I can’t humour him in my life just now. Even since the legal action, he has regularly engaged online with Wings Over Scotland.”
