NICOLA Sturgeon should apologise for the SNP’s election defeat, according to a former MP while another blamed the former first minister for creating a damaging “personality cult” around herself.
Angus MacNeil, who was expelled from the party last year and unsuccessfully stood as an independent candidate, blasted the former first minister and claimed colleagues were “too scared to speak out against” the leadership.
Speaking to the Sunday Mail, MacNeil (below) said: “People have been too scared to speak out against the likes of Sturgeon, John Swinney, Mike Russell and Ian Blackford, and now they are at a dead end.
“It’s time for the pettiness to leave the SNP leadership. That pettiness was brought in by Nicola Sturgeon, who couldn’t cope with a different opinion or learn from another opinion or change her opinion.
“You are only going to be able to discuss routes to independence when Scotland is being well managed with good policies, and the problem is we have had neither.
“Saying I told you so doesn’t give me any pleasure because we still have the same fools in charge.
“The personality cult of Nicola Sturgeon needs to end – people saying ‘I’m with Nicola’, the SNP was allowed to become a group to follow Nicola.”
The SNP are licking their wounds from the result of last week’s election, with former MPs now looking to Holyrood to continue their political careers.
They were reduced to just nine MPs, their worst General Election showing in more than a decade, while Labour reclaimed much of its Scottish heartlands.
Joanna Cherry (below), who lost her Edinburgh South West seat to Labour, said it had been “difficult to persuade people to vote SNP in this election”.
Speaking on Sky New’s Sunday Morning With Trevor Phillip’s programme, the former SNP MP added: “And I’m afraid to say, I’m not ashamed because it’s not down to me, but I am afraid to say and ashamed for my party, that both our reputation of governing competently and for integrity has taken a severe battering in the last couple of years.”
And was asked whether the former first minister owed the party an apology.
Cherry replied: “I think she does.
“I don’t think you can ever blame a setback like this on one person, however, Nicola Sturgeon was a very strong leader who brooked no debate and no dissent, as I know to my considerable cost.”
She added that SNP leader John Swinney (below) had “widespread support” in the party but warned: “If he is to maintain that support, he is going to have to acknowledge the enormity of the setback and address the reasons why it happened.”
Cherry had been at odds with the SNP leadership during her time in Parliament because of conflicts over her stance on women’s rights and gender reforms, while MacNeil had been deeply critical of the party’s approach to independence.
He was expelled from the SNP last year following a bust-up with then-chief whip Brendan O’Hara over failing to attend votes. MacNeil was suspended from the party for a week and then booted out for good when he refused to take back the SNP whip.
An SNP spokesperson told the Sunday Mail: “As the First Minister has made clear, the SNP is focused on rebuilding trust with the people of Scotland by delivering on the issues that matter to them.”
