IT’S the shock announcement that’s sent Holyrood into something of a tizzy.

Now former Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale’s imminent appearance on this year’s I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here! has been condemned as “utterly ludicrous” by one of her own party colleagues.

Neil Findlay MSP said her decision to head to Australia to take part in the reality TV show demeans politics – and he’s not the only Labour figure to express outrage.

Jenny Marra, an MSP for the North East, questioned whether it was an “April fool in November”, while former Better Together head Blair McDougall suggested “flying 10,000 miles to eat kangaroo c**ks with next year’s panto headliners” wouldn’t contribute to the socialist cause.

Ms Dugdale’s successor as Scottish Labour leader, Richard Leonard, has confirmed the party's MSPs are to consider whether to suspend her in the next few days.

It’s thought she sounded out party leaders earlier this month about a three-week trip that would raise money for charity – but failed to mention the reality TV hit.

Mr Findlay, who represents Lothian, said politicians should be working for their constituents, not jetting off “around the world”.

He told BBC One's Sunday Politics: "I think it's utterly ludicrous, a ludicrous position.

"We have a situation where we're in the run up to the budget in Scotland, where local government is on its knees, where the NHS is showing pressures like never before, when people's living standards are falling and they expect their MPs MSPs, councillors, elected representatives to be in fighting on their behalf and I don't think people would expect them to jet off around the world and sit around the camp fire eating a kangaroo's appendage.

"I think it demeans politics when people get involved in that.

"We've got a pretty serious job to do, people out there are struggling and there's huge pressures on public services and that's the job we should be doing.

"I take my job very seriously and so do my colleagues and I think they would expect better."

Ms Dugdale will join the likes of boxer Amir Khan, Boris Johnson's father Stanley and The Saturdays singer Vanessa White in the jungle for the ITV show which kicked off yesterday evening. She did not appear last night, but will meet up with her campmates later.

It is not known how much she will be paid, but yesterday it was revealed the MSP has scrapped her previous commitment to donate her outside earnings to a motor neurone disease charity.

Ms Dugdale used to declare on her register of interest that she gave “any and all” external earnings to MND Scotland, but this pledge was dropped in June. It is understood she will donate a “portion” of her appearance fee from the reality show, as well as her MSP salary while she is in the jungle.

Ms Dugdale became the leader of Scottish Labour after the party's trouncing in the 2015 general election, in which it lost 40 of the 41 seats it had held north of the border to the SNP.

She stepped down suddenly in August, prompting the leadership contest, with both Mr Leonard and fellow MSP Anas Sarwar vying to succeed her.

Speaking in Glasgow just after he was elected leader on Saturday, Mr Leonard said he was "a bit disappointed" by Ms Dugdale's decision.

He said suspension was not his initial reaction but added: ''I think it's something the group will have to consider.''

But UK leader Jeremy Corbyn said: ''It's her choice to go on I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here!, I don't think it's appropriate to suspend someone from the party for doing that, that's her choice.''