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Dugdale changes charity pledge as she appears on I’m A Celebrity

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Previously Dugdale pledged to donate all outside earnings to charity

Kezia Dugdale has sparked controversy for reneging on a pledge to donate “any and all” money earned from “outside interests” to charity.

The former Scottish Labour leader, who is appearing on ITV’s I’m A Celebrity, has reportedly changed her pledge as written in the Scottish Parliament’s registry of members’ interests and has declined to say what portion of her fee she’ll give to charity for her stint on the show.

At the start of the year Dugdale’s entry in the registry says she was giving the entire fee she receives for a newspaper column to a Scottish charity for Motor Neurone Disease – alongside any other earnings outside of her work in the Scottish Parliament.

But the pledge to donate “any and all” outside earnings to charity was removed from the registry in June.

Appearance fees for I’m a Celebrity are thought to range from around £70,000 to £200,000 for bigger names.

Dugdale, 36, who remains a serving MSP for Edinburgh Lothians, quit as leader of the Scottish Labour Party in August after just two years in the job saying it was “time to pass the baton on” and citing the pressures of leadership and wanting to enjoy life outside of politics.

She took over leadership of the party from Jim Murphy in August 2015 after the party lost all but one of its Westminster seats to the SNP.

Dugdale has previously called for a ban on second jobs for MPS, pledging “a new kind of politics” in a speech to parliament in 2016.

Richard Leonard, who succeeded her as leader, said the Scottish Labour group will consider whether to suspend Dugdale from the party following the unexpected announcement of her appearance in the gameshow.