JOANNA Cherry has hit out at “anonymous senior SNP sources” who criticised her after she used her column in last week’s The National to “advocate wider democratic debate within the party”.
Writing in today’s paper, the MP for Edinburgh South West warns those trying to stymie discussion about the future that their “underhand behaviour does not endear them to the activists whose hard work has put them in the senior positions they hold”.
READ MORE: Joanna Cherry: SNP activists must not be allowed to stifle open debate
Last week, Cherry said her party needed to have a “major rethink” on strategy ahead of next year’s Holyrood elections.
She said that despite recent polls showing a comfortable win for the SNP in 2021, the coronavirus crisis could leave voters in Scotland seeking a “radical change”.
Cherry also compared Nicola Sturgeon to Winston Churchill, who led the UK through the Second World War but was turfed out of No 10 during the 1945 General Election.
Responding to the column, a party source told The Herald at the time that it was ill-informed and disloyal.
They added: “The level of Cherry’s brazen disloyalty and barely disguised personal ambition is quite staggering.”
They also accused her of having lost the plot.
In today’s column, Cherry says she is “working towards one goal alone and that is the goal of independence which most of our movement shares”.
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