SCOTTISH Labour chief Richard Leonard is being urged to use his time at the party’s conference in Liverpool to intervene in the decision to stop paying Kezia Dugdale’s legal fees in her defamation battle with Wings Over Scotland blogger, Stuart Campbell.

The Scottish leader is also coming under pressure to act after Jeremy Corbyn appeared to suggest he wouldn’t stand in the way of a second referendum on Scottish independence.

Members of Glasgow Anniesland CLP have tabled an emergency motion they hope to raise at the party’s conference, which starts on Saturday in Liverpool.

They say a “promise was made by the party to support Kezia Dugdale in this action from start to finish in connection with her legal defence.”

The former Scottish Labour leader is being sued for defamation after suggesting that a tweet by Campbell was homophobic.

Because the Labour Party’s legal costs are around £90,000 so far, Dugdale has been told that the party will stop paying her bills.

It was the previous general secretary Iain McNicol who made the promise to support Dugdale. He was replaced by Jennie Formby, a Corbyn supporter, in March.

Reportedly, a number of MSPs have urged Leonard to intervene on Dugdale’s behalf but so far, he has refused to challenge Formby’s decision.

The case revolves around a tweet Campbell made about Tory MSP Oliver Mundell, whose father is David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary who came out as gay in 2016.

Campbell tweeted last year: “Oliver Mundell is the sort of public speaker that makes you wish his dad had embraced his homosexuality sooner.”

In a column for the Daily Record, Dugdale said that she was “shocked and appalled to see a pro-independence blogger’s homophobic tweets”.

The Anniesland motion, says that Dugdale led the party during a “dark and difficult time.” They go on to say the party should support her because it would be an “important demonstration of solidarity, based on out party’s principles of tolerance and equality”. Labour’s general secretary should “reinstate support, financial and otherwise, on the terms previously agreed”, they add.

A spokesman for Dugdale said: “Given the principles on which it was founded – equality, fairness and justice – the UK Labour Party wholeheartedly committed to paying all legal costs associated with this case from start to finish. It is very much hoped that all promises will be kept.”

A Scottish Labour spokesman said that it would be inappropriate to comment on an “ongoing legal case”.

Yesterday, Campbell tweeted: “I slagged off Oliver Mundell. It was never any of Kezia Dugdale’s business, let alone Labour’s. The Tories must be pissing themselves”.

It’s not the only headache for Leonard as heads to conference, with the Tories calling on him “to stand-up to Jeremy Corbyn” after the veteran left-winger said he’d be happy to allow a second vote on Scottish independence.

This week, the Labour leader told the BBC if he was to become prime minister he would “decide at the time” what to do if Nicola Sturgeon asked for his consent as she is required to do under UK law in order to hold a legally binding vote.

He said: “Things will be very different in Scotland with an ally in Westminster like a Labour government.”

When asked whether he was ruling out giving the First Minister consent for a referendum to be held, Corbyn responded: “I’m not ruling out – I’m just pointing out the reality.”

“We don’t want another referendum, we don’t think another referendum is a good idea and we’ll be very clear on why we don’t think it’s a good idea.

The 2016 Scottish Labour manifesto said: “We rule out another referendum on independence during the lifetime of the next Parliament.”

At the General Election a year later when she was leader, Dugdale gave a “cast iron guarantee” that Labour would oppose a second referendum, saying independence would lead to “turbo charged austerity”.

Scottish Tory deputy leader Jackson Carlaw said: “Jeremy Corbyn’s weak admission that he wants the SNP to have another independence vote is a direct contradiction of Labour’s 2017 manifesto.

“Richard Leonard has to now clarify what his party’s position on this vital matter is. Is he going to stand up for the majority of Scots who want to keep the UK together?”

A Scottish Labour spokesman said: “We’ll take no lessons from the Tories on anything to do with the Constitution as their shambolic handling of Brexit shows, and with their daily party in fighting they are simply no longer fit to be in Government and as dealings with Europe show no longer fit to negotiation.”