Joanna Cherry spoke out at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
The SNP lacks “vision” under John Swinney, a former party MP has claimed, with Joanna Cherry insisting it needs a “sea change” before it could succeed in winning independence for Scotland.
Ms Cherry claimed successive leaders over the last 10 years: Mr Swinney; his predecessor Humza Yousaf; and Nicola Sturgeon before him; had made a “real mess” in the party.
Her comments came as she also claimed her “life would have been hell” if she had been successful when she ran to be the party’s Westminster leader.
Ms Cherry said she feared she “would not have survived attempts to smear me” if she had defeated Ian Blackford in the contest to lead the party’s Westminster group back in 2017.
Her comments came as she said the SNP lacks “vision” under current leader, and Scottish First Minister John Swinney, claiming a “sea change” would be needed before it could lead to Scotland to independence.
Speaking about Mr Swinney – who took over an SNP leader in 2024 – Ms Cherry, who is no longer a party member, stated: “I don’t think there really is any vision.”
Speaking to broadcaster Iain Dale at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe on Monday, she said the SNP “doesn’t seem to know what to do with the power it has” – likening the party to former Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.
Her comments came after former first minister Ms Sturgeon wrote in the updated version of her memoir that there there was “a lack of vision or big picture thinking” when it came the SNP’s Holyrood election campaign this year.
Meanwhile, Ms Cherry also refused to rule out making a return to elected politics in the future, after she lost her Commons seat to Labour in the 2024 general election.
She suggested she could make a return to politics if Stephen Flynn – a former SNP Westminster leader who switched to Holyrood and is now Economy, Tourism and Transport Secretary in the Scottish Cabinet – was to become the next SNP leader.
Speaking about him, Ms Cherry said: “Of what is available in Holyrood at the moment, Stephen is by far and away the person I would most like to see as the next leader of the SNP.”
Asked if she could make a comeback to politics, she said: “I would certainly consider it if Stephen became leader, for example. I would hope he might extend an amnesty to many of us who have left the party and say, ‘come back’.”
However, she stressed she was not considering a return to politics “at the moment”.
Ms Cherry told the audience at the EICC: “I have no political ambitions in the foreseeable future.
“Lots of people write to me from the independence movement and ask me to come back, to wave some sort of magic wand, but there is a real mess that has been left behind by those in leadership over the last 10 years and it cannot be solved by one person, and it will need a sea change in the party before the party can move forward and take the country to independence.
“And I would like to see some evidence that sea change is happening before I rejoin.”
Recalling her time at Westminster, Ms Cherry had said she would not have stood for election as an MP if she had been able to “see into the future” – saying she had received death and rape threats during her time in politics.
The former MP said: “If I had known what I was letting myself in for when I put myself forward as an SNP candidate at the end of 2014, the person I was then would never have done it if I could see into the future.”
Referring to former Scottish first minister Alex Salmond, she added: “If I could see what they were going to do to Alex, if I could have seen what they would do to me in their constant attempts to try to smear me, and if I had seen I would be facing death and rape threats, of course, I wouldn’t have given up what was quite a lucrative and successful career.”
But she added: “I don’t regret having done it for a moment, because I had some really exciting times in politics.”
However, recalling when she ran against Ian Blackford for SNP leader in 2017, she said if she had won: “I think my life would have been hell and I fear I would not have survived attempts to smear me.”
Ms Cherry said that she had come under attack from parts of the party after “initiatives” she undertook while an MP were “misinterpreted” as her “being desperate to replace Nicola (Sturgeon)”.
Recalling when she stood to be SNP Westminster leader in 2017, she said: “Had I won that election over Ian Blackford I think they would have done everything they could to undermine and blacken my name even more than they managed to, so I am quite glad I didn’t win it.”
