Kezia Dugdale reveals defamation case win to be appealed by Wings Over Scotland blogger

The Scottish blogger who lost his defamation action against Kezia Dugdale for calling him homophobic is set to appeal the decision, she has revealed.

By Chris Green Thursday, 15th August 2019, 8:20 pm

Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale leaving Edinburgh Sheriff Court earlier this year where she is faced a defamation action brought by pro-independence blogger Stuart Campbell.

The former Scottish Labour leader said Stuart Campbell, who runs the pro-independence Wings Over Scotland website, had instructed his lawyers to try to have it overturned.

Speaking during an appearance at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, she said he had “intimated to the courts” in the past few days that he intended to appeal Sheriff Nigel Ross's decision.

Sign up to our daily newsletter The i newsletter cut through the noise Sign up Thanks for signing up! Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting...

Former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale leaving Edinburgh Sheriff Court earlier this year where she is faced a defamation action brought by pro-independence blogger Stuart Campbell.

She also said the case had brought her “as close to a breakdown as I have ever been”, destroying her relationship with her father and shaking her trust in her party after it withdrew legal funding.

Mr Campbell took Ms Dugdale to court seeking damages of £25,000 after she criticised him in a newspaper column, claiming he was responsible for “homophobic Tweets”.

But in a written judgment handed down in April, Sheriff Ross said the MSP was protected by the principle of "fair comment" despite her claims being wrong.

He said that while the blogger was "not motivated by homophobia", he had only suffered “wounded feelings” and would only have been entitled to £100 of damages if he had won the case.

In an interview with the journalist Graham Spiers, Ms Dugdale insisted she had won the case “emphatically” on “every aspect of the law”. She added: “In the past few days, I’ve discovered that Wings Over Scotland has intimated to the court that he intends to appeal.

“So it’s going to come again. It’s going to go to the Court of Session and cost tens, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds again.”

She also said she thought her “entire world was caving in” when the Labour Party decided to withdraw its funding for her defence, worrying that she may end up losing her house.

“I was as close to a breakdown as I have ever been in my life, because I felt utterly alone,” she added.

Ms Dugdale also said her relationship with her father Jeff had ended after he publicly “cheered” for Mr Campbell during the case through his own Twitter account.

Mr Campbell later confirmed he would be launching an appeal.

"Kezia Dugdale brought the court case entirely on herself by defaming me with a false allegation and refusing to withdraw it when asked," he said.

"Her delaying tactics were solely responsible for both the fact that it dragged on for two years and for the astronomical costs.