LABOUR stopped funding Kezia Dugdale’s legal battle with Wings Over Scotland after taking advice from a lawyer on the likelihood of her winning, it has been revealed.

A letter from the party’s general secretary Jennie Formby to Holyrood’s MSPs was leaked to the staunchly Corbyn-supporting blog, Skwawkbox, yesterday.

Dugdale claims Labour’s previous general secretary Iain McNicol promised to support her but that Formby has now broken that promise by walking away from the legal action.

Earlier this week, she told the BBC: “The Labour Party made a promise and it’s not a good look for any political party to fail to keep its promise – and this is to one of its own.”

But in Formby’s letter to the Holyrood Labour group, she says there was “no evidence to indicate that any open-ended commitment was made to fully fund Kezia’s legal costs and certainly [Labour’s] finance team were unaware of any such commitment.”

She says that after the Sheriff decided that the case should go to a full trial and Dugdale decided to appeal that decision, Labour then instructed counsel for an “opinion on the chances of success”.

“The opinion was duly obtained and following internal discussion it was agreed that the party could not continue to fund the case,” Formby writes.

The general secretary also attacked Dugdale for not contacting her and for not thanking “the party for the support to date”.

The party has, she insists “behaved very generously with the support provided to date but... it is simply not sustainable to commit any further funds to one individual case.”

Formby concludes her letter by saying she hopes “Kezia and all MSPs, members and activists will now get behind the party”.

It’s an explosive letter which will only lead to further ructions in the Scottish party. Reports yesterday suggested Dugdale could even be set to quit Labour.