Joanna Cherry has urged her colleague Mhairi Black to apologise to SNP MPs after she said some of them had grown too “comfortable” in Westminster.
The Edinburgh South West MP said Ms Black’s comments were not appropriate given she is deputy leader of the Westminster group and some SNP MPs are facing “difficult fights to hang on to their seats”.
Asked about the remarks this morning on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland, Ms Cherry, a KC, said: "I heard what Mhair Black had to say and and what I will say about that is that I'm absolutely delighted with the way in which Steven Flynn is leading the Westminster group, I think he's doing a great job.
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"However, when he made Mhairi his deputy, he gave her a position of great responsibility, particularly in an election year, when so many of her colleagues are facing difficulties to hang on to their seats.
"I don't think it's appropriate for Mhairi to be attacking her colleagues in public. She needs to live up to her responsibilities or give the post over to someone who will.
"I'm hoping that Mhairi will apologise to her colleagues this week. To answer your question directly. no, I'm not too comfortable at Westminster but the SNP is not an abstentionist party. And if Mhairi wants to change that policy and she needs to put the work in to do it."
She added: "At the moment, my constituents expect me to be present at Westminster and representing them there in relation to important issues such as the post office scandal.
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"I had hundreds of emails about it over the weekend and I intend to be present in the chamber and raising issues about it this week. My colleague Marian Fellows has been doing for years doing a great job leading on the post office issue for the SNP.. at Westminster.
"So what I would say is that it's not easy being an opposition member of Parliament at Westminster, but if you work hard, and if you're present they are and if you build alliances, then you can achieve success as I've shown that in the past when I built across party lines to stop Boris Johnson is unlawful prorogation of Parliament."
She added that many SNP MPs had had "significant victories" in relation to other issues, citing Ronnie Cowan's work on gambling reform, Marian Fellows' on disability rights and Patricia Gibson#s work on parental bereavement leave.
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"It's hard work that it's not always terribly glamorous, it's easy to stand up and make a speech," she said.
"It's harder to work hard behind the scenes to create alliances to achieve reform, and until independence comes we'll still have SNPs at Westminster and do a job and be there, and I believe in doing that."
Ms Black announced last summer she will not stand as an MP at the next general election.
The 28-year-old, who was first elected in 2015, said she was"tired" of "toxic" Westminster, describing it as a "horrible place to be."
She also said the threats and social media abuse had left her loved ones in a "constant state of anxiety" over her safety.
At the time First Minister Humza Yousaf paid tribute to the MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, describing her as a trailblazer.
During the same interview this morning Ms Cherry also spoke about her 10 minute rule bill which would give Holyrood the power, if they wished, to split the dual role of Lord Advocate – who is both the head of Scotland’s prosecution service and the Scottish Government’s top legal adviser.
The bill removes the reservation of the matter from the Scotland Act.
She said the move would set right a “historical anomaly” by allowing these two elements of the role to be held by different people.
Her bill is due to be heard at Westminster later this week.
She said she did not intend criticism of the current Lord Advocate, Dorothy Bain, but there has long been concern about a potential conflict of interest in the two parts of the job.
She said: “Because of reservations in the Scotland Act, it’s not open to the Scottish Parliament to create a new law officer or a new public prosecutor.
“There would have to be devolution of the power from Westminster to Holyrood to do that.
“That’s what my 10-minute rule private member’s bill is designed to do.”
She said that reconsidering the role was part of the SNP manifesto, while she expected “cross-party” support from Labour, the Conservatives, the Lib Dems and Alba.
A number of events in recent years have exposed the tension in the role, she said – including the investigation into Alex Salmond, the Rangers malicious prosecution scandal and the ongoing police investigation into the SNP’s finances.
Concerns about the Lord Advocate’s role went even further back, she argued, saying it is a “historical anomaly that was rubber-stamped by the Scotland Act”.
The Scottish Government has committed to reviewing the Lord Advocate’s role. Ms Cherry’s Bill would allow Holyrood to amend the law officer’s role.
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