1. Kezia Alexandra Ross Dugdale was born on 28 August 1981 and is a Scottish former politician who served as Leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 2015 to 2017.
41 Facts About Kezia Dugdale
1. 2.
Kezia Dugdale was elected at the 2011 Scottish Parliament election on the Lothian regional list and became Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party in 2014.
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Kezia Dugdale was elected Leader of the Scottish Labour Party in the 2015 Scottish Labour leadership election.
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Kezia Dugdale led the party into the 2016 Scottish Parliament election; where it finished third behind the Scottish National Party and Scottish Conservatives; Dugdale failed to be elected to the Edinburgh Eastern constituency, being elected on the Lothian regional list.
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Kezia Dugdale resigned as leader in August 2017 to "pass on the baton" to a successor who would lead the party into the 2021 Scottish Parliament election.
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Kezia Dugdale later resigned her seat and Scottish Labour membership in July 2019 and accepted the role of director of the John Smith Centre for Public Service at the University of Glasgow.
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In 2024 Kezia Dugdale became Associate Director of the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Glasgow.
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Kezia Dugdale attended secondary school at Harris Academy in Dundee, where she was Head Girl.
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Kezia Dugdale studied law at the University of Aberdeen from 1999 until 2003, and completed a master's degree in policy studies from 2004 until 2006 at the University of Edinburgh.
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Kezia Dugdale sat on Scottish Labour's Policy Forum from 2006 until 2008, as well as serving as an election agent to both Sarah Boyack MSP and Sheila Gilmore MP.
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Kezia Dugdale had volunteered as a researcher in the parliamentary office of Pauline McNeill MSP.
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Kezia Dugdale worked from 2007 to 2011 for the Labour Lothian regional MSP George Foulkes, by then a Labour life peer, as his parliamentary office manager and political adviser.
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Kezia Dugdale served as a Scottish Labour and Co-operative Party member and sat on the Local Government and Regeneration and Subordinate Legislation Committees.
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Kezia Dugdale was appointed as Scottish Labour's Spokesperson for Education and Lifelong Learning on 29 June 2013.
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Kezia Dugdale won the 2014 Scottish Labour deputy leadership election, succeeding Anas Sarwar, and defeating Katy Clark.
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Kezia Dugdale was succeeded by Alex Rowley after the leadership election.
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Kezia Dugdale led Scottish Labour into the 2016 Scottish Parliament election.
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Kezia Dugdale wanted to re-affirm Scottish Labour's core beliefs and convey to the electorate what the party stood for.
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Kezia Dugdale focused her campaign on a proposal to increase income tax to tackle underfunding of services by the Scottish National Party government, particularly in education.
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Kezia Dugdale was returned as an additional member for the Lothian region, having failed to win the Edinburgh Eastern constituency from the SNP by 5,087 votes.
21.
On 29 June 2016, Kezia Dugdale called for Jeremy Corbyn to resign from his position as Leader of the Labour Party, after 174-to-40 Labour MPs voted no-confidence in his leadership.
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Kezia Dugdale was Leader of the Scottish Labour Party during the 2017 general election.
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Kezia Dugdale again campaigned on what she saw as the need for an income tax increase to tackle education underfunding by the SNP.
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On 29 August 2017, Kezia Dugdale resigned as leader of Scottish Labour with immediate effect, commenting that it was time to "pass on the baton" to someone else.
25.
Kezia Dugdale opined that her successor needed the "space and time" to prepare for the next Scottish Parliament election in 2021.
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In November 2017, ITV announced that Kezia Dugdale would appear as a contestant on its reality television series, I'm a Celebrity.
27.
Kezia Dugdale became the second person to be eliminated from the show.
28.
Kezia Dugdale expressed regrets of the effect of her appearances on the show during the first weeks of the new Labour leadership in Scotland, and received a written warning for agreeing to take part without approval from the Scottish Labour parliamentary group.
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Kezia Dugdale promised to donate her MSP's salary for her absence, and part of her show fees, to charity.
30.
The judgement said Kezia Dugdale was incorrect to imply Campbell had been homophobic but her article was protected under the principle of fair comment.
31.
On 29 April 2019, Kezia Dugdale announced she would be resigning as an MSP before the summer recess of the Scottish Parliament in order to take up the role of director of the John Smith Centre for Public Service at the University of Glasgow.
32.
On 15 July 2019, Kezia Dugdale resigned as a Member of the Scottish Parliament.
33.
In February 2024, Kezia Dugdale revealed that she had voted for the Scottish National Party in the 2019 European Parliament election over Brexit.
34.
In March 2024 Kezia Dugdale became Associate Director of the Centre for Public Policy at the University of Glasgow.
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Kezia Dugdale first appeared in public with her partner Louise Riddell when they voted together in Edinburgh in the 2016 Scottish Parliament election.
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In February 2017, Kezia Dugdale revealed the couple had separated shortly after the New Year and following nine years together.
37.
In July 2017, it was reported Kezia Dugdale was in a relationship with Mid Fife and Glenrothes MSP Jenny Gilruth, a member of the SNP, and the two had started dating around four months earlier.
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In June 2022, Kezia Dugdale married Gilruth in a private ceremony.
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Kezia Dugdale says her interests include the theatre, Scottish crime novels, and the city of Edinburgh.
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Kezia Dugdale has lived in the Lochend, and Meadowbank, area since 2006.
41.
Kezia Dugdale is a member of Unite the Union and the Community trade union.