Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale backs Owen Smith

Kezia Dugdale, who as the Scottish Labour leader is the party's most highly elected female politician, has backed Owen Smith in the leadership contest.

Writing for the Daily Record, she said:

"Owen Smith gets my vote. I believe he can unite our party and move us on from the divisions that exist under the current leadership of Jeremy Corbyn. Owen understands that to have a chance of implementing Labour values, we need to win over some of those who didn’t vote for us at the last election."

She said that if she had such little support from her MSPs in the way that Jeremy Corbyn has lost the backing of 80 per cent of his MPs, she would have to resign.