I’M A Celebrity… Get Me Out Of Here! was already stretching the definition of a star when Boris Johnson’s dad became a contestant but the barrel was well and truly scraped when backbench MSP Kezia Dugdale got an 11th-hour call-up for the 17th series of the reality TV show which starts tonight.
The survival game show sees participants take part in increasingly dreadful challenges known as Bushtucker Trials in the Australian outback – they are usually forced to eat cockroaches, grubs and the genitals of kangaroos and crocodiles – before the public gets the chance to vote them out. It’s an exercise in humiliation – which Dugdale may well be used to after her career in Holyrood.
The Labour politician was not known for riding high in the polls and led the Scottish branch of her party to a dismal third place in 2016’s Holyrood elections – which is probably why the bookmakers have made her an outsider to win the popularity contest. One colleague, Anas Sarwar, said yesterday he wants to start a phone bank to ensure Kezia is thrown in a pit of rats but she can probably rest easily because Sarwar’s campaign team was unable to mobilise enough party members to see him named Kezia’s successor as Scottish Labour leader.
Someone who may be worried about Kezia’s appearance on I’m A Celebrity is her SNP MSP girlfriend Jenny Gilruth who will be stuck at the boring old Scottish Parliament, while Dugdale hangs out with C-listers in the jungle. Gilruth may soon be heard shouting in the Holyrood chamber: “I’m An MSP… Get Me Out Of Here!”
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