A £25,000 defamation claim brought by a blogger against the former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale will be heard in court in Edinburgh on Thursday.



Stuart Campbell, who runs the blog Wings Over Scotland, sued the Lothian MSP last year after she accused him of homophobia.

Dugdale was referring to a tweet about the Scottish Conservative MSP Oliver Mundell, whose father, the Scotland secretary, David Mundell, came out as gay in 2016.

The tweet said: “Oliver Mundell is the sort of public speaker that makes you wish his dad had embraced his homosexuality sooner.”

Campbell strongly denies the allegation.

The provocative blogger came to prominence during the Scottish independence campaign of 2014, when he monitored the reporting of the constitutional debate by the mainstream media.

Since then, his online tactics have caused his popularity to wane among some Scottish independence activists, but his annual crowdfunder in March was his biggest yet, raising more than £153,000.

A preliminary hearing concluded that the case would begin with legal debate between the lawyers from each side, and neither Dugdale nor Campbell will be called as witnesses this week.

The case is scheduled for two days of debate at Edinburgh sheriff court, with Sheriff McGowan presiding.