Andy Wightman being sued for £750,000 in defamation action

Scottish Green Party MSP Andy Wightman has confirmed he is being sued in a defamation action for £750,000 over claims made on his blog.

The Lothians list MSP has received a letter detailing a possible future summons over the defamation, with more than one party joining the action against Mr Wightman.

He said: “I will not be publishing any details of this case until the summons is served.”

Mr Wightman was elected in May and has been a high-profile campaigner on land reform.

He graduated from the University of Aberdeen in 1985 with a forestry degree and was co-founder of the Reforesting Scotland group. Before being elected as an MSP he spent 23 years as a researcher and writer.

The National reports that the issues complained about were published earlier this year and that no interdict was sought to prevent their publication.

Mr Wightman told the paper: “I have been informed that instructions have been given to issue a summons against me for alleged defamation in relation to material I have published on my personal andywightman.com blog. I have instructed my solicitor to reply saying that I will be defending this to the utmost.”