Joanna Cherry quits SNP governing body

Joanna Cherry has quit the SNP’s ruling body, claiming she had been prevented from carrying out her duties. 

The Edinburgh South West MP is the fifth member of the NEC to step down since last year’s elections, and the second in as many days.

Her resignation follows that of Douglas Chapman who announced he was quitting as the party’s national treasurer on Saturday. 

Three members of the finance and audit committee previously walked out in March.

Cherry, a QC, who was sacked as the SNP’s spokesperson on justice and home affairs at Westminster earlier this year, tweeted: “I’ve resigned from the NEC of the SNP. A number of factors have prevented me from fulfilling the mandate party members gave me to improve transparency and scrutiny and to uphold the party’s constitution, I won’t be making any further comment at this stage.”

Chapman also blamed a lack of transparency from party HQ.

This claim was denied by senior party figures including John Swinney, the deputy first minister, and Kirsten Oswald, the SNP business convener.

Sources told the Times the resignations were linked to frustration with Peter Murrell,the chief executive of the SNP, who is married to Nicola Sturgeon. 

“It’s all about Murrell,” said one source. “The party is an absolute shitshow but it kind of feels like they are getting away with it.”

Embarrassingly for the party, the two resignations come just days after Marco Biagi, the former SNP MSP for Edinburgh Central, quit his position as the head of the party’s “independence taskforce” last week.

Ian Murray, Labour’s shadow Scotland secretary, said: “The SNP have long been gripped by a kind of centralism and secrecy that would make Lenin blush”

Last year’s internal elections saw a number of critics of the leadership elected to the governing body, including members of the Common Weal Group, and those critical of the Scottish Government’s proposed reforms of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA).