Joanna Cherry, the outgoing SNP MP, has criticised Nicola Sturgeon for failing to take responsibility for the party’s collapse and “squandering” chances to achieve Scottish independence.

The high-profile rebel, who was defeated by the Labour candidate Scott Arthur despite defending a 12,000 majority, said the party had lost its reputation for “integrity and delivering a competent government” which had contributed to a poor general election result.

She singled out Ms Sturgeon, the former first minister, and Ian Blackford, the former SNP Westminster leader, for derailing the independence cause by failing to capitalise on the public backlash to the Brexit vote and Boris Johnson years.

READ MORE: After the tears, what now for the SNP and independence?

“I think our vote got squeezed on two sides, on one side those of our supporters who passionately believe in the cause of Scottish independence feel like we have not done enough,” she told Forth 1 News. “And I think they are right about that.

“History will show that major opportunities were squandered by Nicola Sturgeon and Ian Blackford during the Brexit years and during the Boris years.”

Ms Cherry said she was “dismayed” to hear Ms Sturgeon, who appeared on ITV as an election commentator, talking about the party in the third person “as if she has nothing to do with it and not taking any responsibility for what’s happened to the party tonight”.

Separately, she said the SNP must move away from identity politics such as transgender rights.

“If Nicola Sturgeon had devoted half the energy that she devoted to calling lifelong feminists like me a transphobe and devoted half that energy to governing well then the SNP would not be facing a rout this evening,” she said.

The outgoing Edinburgh South West MP, who has been one of the few SNP figures to publicly criticise the leadership for its perceived failures also appeared on the same ITV election programme as Ms Sturgeon creating an awkward exchange when Ms Cherry criticised her “style of leadership”.

Ms Sturgeon said that no one should be surprised by Ms Cherry’s criticism, adding that the former MP had been re-elected three times under her leadership.

“I tried very hard to progress the indy case, to find a route to take that decision again,” Ms Sturgeon said.

“With a Westminster undemocratic veto, there is a lack of legal route at the moment. Anyway, Joanna’s suggestions on how that will be overcome are missing.”

The former first minister — who stepped down in February last year — added: “Often you find in these kind of positions you are neither the hero or the villain.

“I delivered three general election victories, of course, I take responsibility for where the party is now. For anybody to take refuge in somehow it’s all my fault, would be taking the easy solution or response to this result.”

Now a backbench SNP MSP she then appeared to point the blame at Mr Swinney's campaign distancing herself from colleagues by referring to them as "they", not "we".

“They’ve kind of left themselves between two stools on the independence campaign: you’ve got to follow it through on the day-to-day campaigning,” she said.

The SNP were unprepared and underfunded for the election and struggled to catch up. Although independence was the “page one, line one” manifesto promise, the party’s campaign was essentially defensive: reverse Brexit, oppose “austerity”, send a “strong opposition” to Westminster. Cumulatively, this messaging implicitly conceded that the SNP would be, at best, a marginal presence in the new parliament.

Ms Sturgeon was appearing as a pundit despite being under investigation by detectives examining the SNP’s finances. She was arrested and released without charge last June in connection with an investigation into the party’s funds. Her home and the party headquarters were searched, while

Peter Murrell, her husband and the former SNP chief executive, has been charged with embezzlement of funds from the party.

Colin Beattie, the party’s former treasurer, was also arrested, questioned and released. Police Scotland said that Ms Sturgeon and Mr Beattie remain under investigation​.

Meanwhile, John Swinney has said he is “committed” to healing the relationship between the SNP and the electorate as he admitted his party had "failed to convince" the people of Scotland on independence.

Speaking in Edinburgh this morning, the First Minister said he took full responsibility for the campaign which saw the party drop dozens of seats.

“The Scottish National Party needs to be healed and it needs to heal its relationship with the people of Scotland, and I am absolutely committed to doing that,” he said.

The party had said in its manifesto that a majority of seats would be a mandate for negotiations on holding another referendum, but in the end it won just nine - down on the 48 it took in 2019 and short of the 20 it needed for a majority.

By 8.10am on Friday, Scotland’s governing party had won only nine seats in the House of Commons, compared with 37 for Labour.

“I have to accept that we failed to convince people of the urgency of independence in this election campaign,” he said.

“Therefore, we need to take the time to consider and to reflect on how we deliver our commitment to independence – which remains absolute.

“As somebody who has devoted their entire adult life to the winning of Scottish independence – not for an abstract reason, but because I believe it will transform the lives of our people for the better – we need to get that approach correct in the forthcoming period.
“I accept that we need to engage with, listen to and learn from the people of Scotland on how we take forward our arguments for independence.”

The first result, from Kilmarnock and Loudon, set the tone for the night as Labour came from third to first to beat the SNP in a seat that was number 28 on its list of target constituencies.

The SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn - who was reelected as the Aberdeen South MP - was particularly blunt last night saying that the case for independence was a “hard sell right now” and demanded that his party was “bold in our action” and changes course.

“We are experiencing something that we have not experienced for quite some time,” he said. “We are going to be beat in Scotland, we are going to be beat well. So now is the time that we must learn and we must listen.”

The Labour surge saw the return of Douglas Alexander, the former cabinet minister, and the election of potential future ministers including Blair McDougall, who ran the Better Together campaign, and Kirsty McNeill, a charity boss.

Alex Salmond said that “in reality the support for independence is strong. It is the SNP who are weak.”

Anas Sarwar, the Scottish Labour leader, said the result gave his party momentum that he would use to try and unseat the SNP from government at the 2026 Holyrood election.

“I’m confident that we are going to win this election in Scotland, I’m confident that we will have a majority in Scotland and we can start the process of change tomorrow,” he said.

“It’s going to be a significant day in Glasgow, a significant day in Scotland and right across the UK.”
Turnout fell significantly across all of Scotland’s constituencies, with just 47 per cent of the electorate voting in Glasgow North East.

Former first minister Alex Salmond, now Alba Party leader, rejected the idea that a defeat of the SNP could be taken as an end for Scottish independence.

“The slaughter of the SNP is not because of independence,” he said. “How could it be? The SNP did not even campaign on it. In reality the support for independence is strong. It is the SNP who are weak.”