THE top Labour official who withdrew support for paying Kezia Dugdale’s legal bills in her court battle against a pro-independence blogger is to face party MSPs at a Holyrood showdown.

Jennie Formby, who has been blamed for the decision to stop footing the bill for Ms Dugdale’s costs, will attend the summit in Parliament this month.

News of the move comes days after Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard purged senior members of his shadow cabinet in a bid to reassert his authority.

Ms Dugdale, who led Scottish leader between 2015 and 2017, is being sued for defamation by Wings over Scotland blogger Stuart Campbell after using her column in a tabloid newspaper to accuse him of “homophobic tweets”.

Referring to Tory MSP Oliver Mundell, the son of gay Conservative MP David Mundell, Mr Campbell had written: “Oliver Mundell is the sort of public speaker that makes you wish his dad had embraced his homosexuality sooner.

The Bath-based blogger has denied his tweet is homophobic and is seeking £25,000 in damages from Ms Dugdale.

Labour at a UK level, when it was under the control of former general secretary Iain McNicol, agreed to pay her legal costs, but when Ms Formby took over this year the support was cut.

The decision infuriated MSPs who believe Ms Dugdale has been abandoned by the party and argue that Mr Leonard has not shown her enough support.

In a letter to MSPs last week, Ms Formby, a supporter of Jeremy Corbyn, wrote:

“The party had fulfilled its original commitment but it was not sustainable to spend further on this case, which has the potential to result in significant financial liability for the party.

“We found no evidence to indicate any open-ended commitment was made to fully fund Kezia’s legal costs, and our finance team were unaware of any such commitment which should have been signed off with them had it been made."

However, the letter did not satisfy Labour MSPs, who put the Dugdale row onto the agenda of the party group meeting on Tuesday.

A motion by Daniel Johnson, the shadow cabinet secretary for justice, restated demands for the decision to be reversed, but no vote was taken.

A second group meeting twenty-four hours later was scheduled, but a spate of cancellations by allies of Mr Leonard, who back Ms Formby, resulted in the session being axed.

An email by Mr Johnson to Labour MSPs, which has been leaked to the Herald on Sunday, stated:

“Given the importance of the topic to be discussed and the fact that yesterdays meeting did not conclude, I find this decision very disappointing. When will the group reconvene to conclude yesterdays meeting?”

In what has been described as a “compromise” by one Labour insider, Ms Formby will address MSPs within weeks.

She may face claims the decision was a political punishment against a politician who is not a Corbyn supporter.

On Thursday, two days after the stormy group meeting, Mr Leonard sacked senior MSPs Jackie Baillie and Anas Sarwar from his shadow cabinet.

Ms Baillie and Mr Sarwar were staunch critics of the Formby decision, but a source close to Mr Leonard said the pair had been “unhelpful” to the leader since he succeeded Ms Dugdale last year.

Mr Leonard defeated Mr Sarwar in a bitter election contest which focused on the employment practices of the cash and carry firm owned by Mr Sarwar’s family, as well as the fact his children are educated privately.

It also emerged last week that Charlie Mann, who was Scottish Labour head of communications for five months, had quit.

Mr Mann, who used to provide PR services for former Hearts owner Vladimir Romanov, said that “the role is not for me”.