MP Cherry in swipe at party ‘backstabbing’ as row in SNP intensifies

●Growing tension exposes rifts amid investigation into bullying claims

A growing row within the SNP over bullying allegations against one of its MPS has intensified after Joanna Cherry accused party colleagues of “backstabbing” her.

The Edinburgh South West MP has said she is the victim of a “smear” campaign over claims of bullying behaviour towards former staff working in her office.

The row threatens to widen rifts within the SNP over its approach to a second Scottish independence referendum and its attitude towards former leader Alex Salmond, who faces a criminal trial this year for charges including sexual assault and attempted rape, which he denies.

Four former members of Ms Cherry’ s office staff have made formal complaints to House of Commons officials over claims of a bullying atmosphere.

The allegations are being investigated by House authorities, with the SNP’S Westminster leader Ian Blackford saying the complaints are not a party matter. Ms Cherry denies the claims.

Media reports have suggested tensions between Ms Cherry and the SNP leadership centre on party vetting procedures that have seen sitting MPS and MSPS inter viewed to confirm whether they can remain candidates. Interviews are understood to have included questions about their conduct as employers.

Ms Cherry, seen by some in the party as a possible successor to Nicola Sturgeon as SNP leader, would need to be re-vetted to stand as a Holyrood candidate.

After news of the bullying al lega ti ons surfaced at the weekend, Ms Cherry told a newspaper they were part of a smear campaign, and accused senior SNP figures of failing to contact her after she was the target of death threats.

“I am confident I will survive the attempts to smear my reputation,” she told the paper. “I won’t lie when I say it hurts that they may have come from within my own party. The problem we have is that from the moment the first parliamentarian complained against was hung out to dry, a signal was given to those with petty motivations that if you seek to smear an SNP parliamentarian the party won’t get behind them, even if they are subsequently exonerated.”

Ms Cherry stepped up her rhetoric

yesterday, posting on Twitter after Prime Minister’s Questions: “At PMQS [Tory MP] Peter Bone tells Theresa May that loyal Tories want her to resign… I’ll say this much for the Conservatives–at least they do their backstabbing in public.”

An SNP insider described the atmosphere within the Nationalist group at Westminster as the worst in recent memory, and “total s***”.

Ms Cherry is understood not to have attended a SNP group meeting at Westminster on Tuesday.

Ms Sturgeon offered words of support to Ms Cherry earlier this week, describing her as “massively talented” and saying she was a “massive asset” to the party. Ms Cherry declined to comment when contac ted by The Scots man yesterday.