KEZIA Dugdale's partner has accused the Labour Party of bullying the ex-leader over her decision to take part in 'I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!'

MSP Jenny Gilruth defended her girlfriend's stance amid threats to suspend Ms Dugdale from the party.

Last night she tweeted: "I see Scottish Labour have developed their own unique take on the final day of #Antibullyingweek. Huge props, comrades! #TeamKez.

It came hours after Labour MSP Neil Findlay branded his colleague's decision to take part in the TV reality show "ludicrous".

Mr Findlay said: ""I think it demeans politics when people get involved in that. We've got a pretty serious job to do, people out there are struggling and there's huge pressures on public services and that's the job we should be doing.

"I take my job very seriously and so do my colleagues and I think they would expect better."

Kezia Dugdale revealed in July that she was dating SNP MSP for Mid Fife and Glenrothes Jenny Gilruth for about four months.

At the beginning of the year the Labour leader split up with her former partner of nine years, Louise Riddell.

In a joint statement, Ms Dugdale and Ms Gilruth asked for their privacy to be respected and said they did not consider their new relationship to be "news".

Ms Gilruth was elected to Holyrood last May and is a parliamentary liaison officer to Deputy First Minister John Swinney.

The statement said: "We don't consider this to be 'news' - but we appreciate others might and we want to go about our daily lives normally.

"We would like to thank our friends, family and colleagues for their kindness over the past few months and for their love and support."