Kezia Dugdale

Early life and education

Dugdale was born in Aberdeen in 1981. She attended secondary school at Harris Academy in Dundee, where she was Head Girl. She studied Law at the University of Aberdeen from 1999–2003, and completed a Master's Degree in Policy Studies from 2004–06 at the University of Edinburgh. As well as living in Aberdeen and Dundee, she has resided in Elgin, Moray, before settling in Edinburgh in 2003. Whilst attending university, Dugdale worked as Campaigns and Welfare Adviser for Edinburgh University Students' Association and as Public Affairs Officer at the National Union of Students Scotland.

Early career

She sat on Scottish Labour's Policy Forum from 2006–2008, as well as serving as an election agent to both Sarah Boyack MSP and Sheila Gilmore MP. She had also volunteered as a researcher in the parliamentary office of Pauline McNeill MSP.

She worked from 2007 to 2011 for the Labour Lothian regional MSP George Foulkes, Baron Foulkes of Cumnock, as his parliamentary office manager and political adviser.

Scottish Parliament election, 2011

In the 2011, she was elected to the Scottish Parliament, as Scottish Labour's second candidate on their list for the Lothian Region. She serves as a Scottish Labour and Co-operative Member and currently sits on the Local Government and Regeneration and Subordinate Legislation Committees. Dugdale was appointed as Scottish Labour's Spokesperson for Education and Lifelong Learning on 29 June 2013.

In 2014, members of the Edinburgh Eastern Constituency Labour Party selected Dugdale as their candidate for the 2016 Scottish Parliament Election. Despite her higher profile as a major party leader, Dugdale lost Edinburgh Eastern on polling day, trailing the SNP candidate by 5,087 votes.

Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party

In 2014, she was elected as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, replacing Anas Sarwar, and defeating Katy Clark. As Jim Murphy, Scottish Labour's leader, did not have a seat in the Scottish Parliament, she stood in for him at First Minister's Questions.

Leader of the Scottish Labour Party

On 13 June 2015, Dugdale resigned from the Deputy leadership in order to seek the leadership in the leadership election, which she won on 15 August.

During an August 2015 interview with The Guardian, she refused to publicly say who out of the four candidates in the UK Labour leadership election she supported, but did express serious doubts as to whether Jeremy Corbyn could ever become Prime Minister. After Corbyn had been elected as Leader of the Labour Party on 13 September, she revealed for the first time, on BBC Question Time on 30 October; that she had voted for Yvette Cooper.

On 29 June 2016, Dugdale called for Corbyn to resign from his position as Leader of the Labour Party, after 174-to-40 Labour MPs voted backing a no-confidence motion in Corbyn's leadership. Dugdale said that when at least 80% of his own MPs have lost confidence in his leadership, and no longer support him, Corbyn could not properly do the job of Labour Leader, could not function as Leader of the Official Opposition in parliament, and nor could he form a potential alternative government.

On 22 August, Dugdale declared her support for Owen Smith against Corbyn in the 2016 Labour leadership election. She also said her position would remain tenable were Corbyn to win re-election. After Corbyn won the leadership election, she first said that this made the Labour Party unelectable, then stated the opposite, prompting criticism from Ken Livingstone who pointed out that most people in Britain had not heard of Dugdale.

On 29 August 2017, Dugdale resigned as leader of Scottish Labour with immediate effect, commenting that it was time to "pass on the baton" to someone else. She opined that her successor needed the "space and time" to prepare for the next Scottish Parliament election in 2021.

Policy positions

Dugdale has said she wants to end the charitable status of private schools in Scotland which gives them tax breaks; in her opinion, this is unfair to state schools.

In a 27 July 2015 televised leadership debate with Ken Macintosh, she said it was wrong that the vast majority of the 232 Labour MPs abstained on the Conservative Government's Welfare Reform and Work Bill in 20 July second reading vote in the House of Commons.

Following the Lord Sewel scandal and resignation on 28 July 2015, she said the House of Lords should no longer be an unelected chamber and should be moved to Glasgow.

Personal life

Dugdale says her interests include the theatre, Scottish crime novels, and the city of Edinburgh. She supports Hibernian F.C., living close to their ground at Easter Road. At University she had little real interest in student politics, though rose to become the vice president of the Aberdeen University Dolly Parton Society (AUDPS). She has lived in the Lochend, and Meadowbank, area since 2006. She is a member of Unite the Union and the Community trade union. She has a weekly column in the Daily Record, and has written for LabourList and Progress.

In a 2016 interview with Mary Riddell for the Fabian Review, Dugdale said that she was in a relationship with a woman, but that she was disinclined to provide details of her private life. She first appeared in public with her partner Louise Riddell when they voted together in Edinburgh at the Scottish Parliament election in May 2016. In February 2017 Dugdale revealed that the couple had separated shortly after the New Year and following nine years together. In July 2017, it was reported Dugdale was in a relationship with Jenny Gilruth, the MSP for Mid Fife and Glenrothes, and a member of the Scottish National Party; the two had started dating around four months earlier.

Her father Jeff Dugdale is a retired teacher living in Moray and is a campaigner for the Scottish independence movement.