Who is Kezia Dugdale, the new Scottish Labour leader?

The latest key figure in UK politics has called for the abolition of the House of Lords and its replacement with an elected second chamber based in Glasgow.

Kezia Dugdale was born on 28 August 1981 and is one of the Scottish Labour Party's 38 members of the Scottish Parliament, representing the Lothian region. She was deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party from 13 December 2014 until 13 June 2015.

Dugdale read Law at the University of Aberdeen from 1999-2003 and then completed a Masters in Policy Studies from 2004-2006 at the University of Edinburgh.

While studying in Edinburgh, Dugdale worked as Campaigns and Welfare Adviser for Edinburgh University Students' Association and as Public Affairs Officer at the National Union of Students Scotland.

In 2011, she was elected to the Scottish Parliament, as Scottish Labour's second candidate on their list for the Lothian Region. She serves as a Scottish Labour and Co-operative Member and currently sits on the Local Government and Regeneration and Subordinate Legislation Committees. Dugdale was appointed to the post of Scottish Labour's Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning on 29 June 2013.

In 2014, members of the Edinburgh Eastern Constituency Labour Party selected Dugdale as their candidate for the 2016 Scottish Parliament Election. During that year she was also elected as Deputy Leader of the Scottish Labour Party, replacing Anas Sarwar, and defeating Katy Clark. As Jim Murphy, the Scottish party's leader, did not have a seat in the Scottish Parliament, she stood in for him at First Minister's Questions.

On 13 June 2015, she resigned the Deputy leadership in order to seek the leadership in the leadership election.

The former deputy leader told The Aberden Press and Journal she was prompted to run by a "terrible" opinion poll at the start of the summer which revealed 80% of under-35s in Scotland planned to vote for the SNP at next year's Holyrood election.

"It really struck a chord with me," she added. "I'm in that generation so I think I'm uniquely placed to speak to them, to match their values and aspirations for the future."

Political stance

Dugdale wants to end the charitable status of private schools in Scotland giving them tax breaks. Following the Lord Sewel scandal and resignation on 28 July 2015, she said the House of Lords should be elected and wants it moved to Glasgow.

She called the second chamber of unelected Lords a "democratic outrage". The Lothian region MSP said: "We need a second chamber, it should be elected and it can't be in London."

She said she would campaign for Glasgow to be the site of a "democratic and balanced revising chamber".

Dugdale added: "Let me be clear – I want to live in a United Kingdom, but I want to shake it up profoundly, and that has to start with the House of Lords."

Labour leadership contest

She has refused to endorse any of the four candidates in the UK Labour Leadership election and said Jeremy Corbyn as leader would leave the party "carping from the sidelines".

She said in a Guardian report: "So you have to convince me that he can be prime minister. Here's a guy that's broken the whip 500 times. So how can the leader of the party enforce discipline with that record?"

However, she recently admitted that her politics are not "wildly different" to those of Corbyn, the frontrunner in the race to replace outgoing Labour leader Ed Miliband.

In her spare time, Dugdale describes her interests as going to the theatre, reading Scottish crime novels and walking around the City of Edinburgh, where she lives.