A TORY councillor who agreed to be struck off the teaching register after calling Nicola Sturgeon a “drooling hag” has defected to Labour.
Fife councillor Kathleen Leslie, who also led the local Tory group, said she decided to quit the party as she believed she was a “better fit” with Labour.
Leslie has represented the Burntisland, Kinghorn and Western Kirkcaldy ward since she was elected in 2017.
She made headlines in the same year after she decided to end her teaching career rather than face a hearing into her “offensive” social media posts about the then first minister, Sturgeon, and other SNP members.
Leslie called Sturgeon “a wee fish wife” along with the Lottery winners and SNP donors the Weir family “uneducated fat f******” as well as making other offensive tweets prior to the 2014 independence referendum.
In a statement to Fife Today, Leslie said she made the decision to defect to Labour after working with the party over the last four years.
She said: “I am not known for making spur of the moment decisions and whilst I became more uneasy at party policy, that did not stop me being political. After much deliberation and research, I have come to the conclusion that for me, I am a better fit within the Labour Party; a party I had been a member of over a decade ago.
“Whilst I have previously stood in parliamentary elections, my focus now is very much on Fife. Over the past four years I have worked constructively with the Labour Administration in a number of areas, the most obvious being Transforming Learning.
“This policy is one I am proud to have been a part of in ensuring equity of access to digital technology for all our young people. If we do not get education right, we get nothing right and that means children need to be supported in their wider life outside of school. Again, I believe that the Labour Party has a better policy approach towards support for all young people in this country.”
Leslie added that she wanted to work against the rise of the far-right, adding that a Reform UK Government would be “catastrophic”.
Last year she criticised her fellow councillor, Gavin Ellis, for defecting to Nigel Farage’s party.
“The rise of Reform UK has been a continued source of concern for me,” Leslie said.
“I believe that a Reform UK Government would be absolutely catastrophic for the people of the UK and Scotland.
“I want to continue to actively work to ensure our communities across Fife are not swept up in a far-right narrative that will cause damage for decades.”
Dave Dempsey, Tory councillor for the Inverkeithing and Dalgety Bay ward, has been elected to fill the vacant post of leader of the Fife Council Conservative Group.
Following his appointment, he said: “I’m looking forward to resuming the role of group leader, which I held for a number of years previously, and to promoting the Scottish Conservatives across Fife as well as in my own ward.”
