Why natural SNP leader Joanna Cherry won’t be picked

In the race to succeed Nicola Sturgeon, it is the women who are generating the most attention so far.

One, Ash Regan, the minister who resigned in protest at Sturgeon’s gender recognition reforms, has reportedly thrown her hat in the ring; another, Kate Forbes, the cabinet finance secretary currently on maternity leave, is yet to declare an interest.

And then there is Joanna Cherry, the MP who fell foul of her party’s inner circle over the transgender row and who has ruled herself out of the contest.

Cherry backed both female colleagues yesterday, mentioning them by name in a tweet. She also appeared to endorse the women in an article for the independence supporting National newspaper, in which she argued that the next leader “must come from within the current Holyrood contingent and it should be someone with at least some ministerial experience”.

Regan, who was Minister for Community Safety, was hardly known before her courageous rebellion in December, a rare outbreak of integrity in a party notoriously unforgiving of dissent.

Forbes, meanwhile, decided not to disturb her maternity leave to cast a vote in the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, though her fellow MSP, Meghan Gallagher, chose to vote against the bill from home, also while on maternity leave.

It is Forbes who is seen, by some anyway, as the saviour of the Scottish Nationalists. Young and capable, with a Highlands constituency, she is regarded as the antithesis of the Sturgeon style of abrasive politics. 

Cherry also said: “Whoever wins must be allowed to develop her stance and vision in collaboration with a new team unfettered by the strategy adopted by the previous leadership.”

Forbes would likely be a more collaborative leader, and would certainly represent a departure from Sturgeon’s radical ideology.

As a member of the Free Church of Scotland she is a committed Christian with traditional beliefs that are so far removed from current thinking in the party hierarchy it is hard to see how she could progress further.

In fact, it is a wonder she is even where she is. She has been open about her faith, and while conspicuously missing from the recent transgender debate, she signed a letter to the Scottish government in 2019 highlighting problems that could arise if biological men were allowed to self-identify as women.

Around the same time, she was criticised by LGBT activists in her party claiming she had “questionable views” on equality because of her religious creed, which includes, if she agrees with her church, opposing gay marriage and abortion.

Under Sturgeon, the SNP has become the party of extremism, striving for a reset of social mores that would make it acceptable for male rapists to be sent to female prisons.

In this they have been influenced by their partnership with the Scottish Greens, ostensibly a political coalition to support independence, but also a meeting of minds, especially on trans rights, which the Green leaders prize above all else.

Could Forbes soar above such zealotry, restore reason and persuade all elements of the party to unite in the interests of pursuing its chief purpose, the break-up of Britain?

One suspects not. Factionalism will prevail and the movement will continue to self-destruct, but even faster without the domineering figure of Sturgeon at its helm.

What is extraordinary is that Forbes remains, for the moment, a darling of the party and a Sturgeon protege, while Cherry, from her platform in Westminster, is cast out as a pariah.

By far the more formidable and seasoned operator, Cherry was sacked from her front bench role two years ago over her outspoken views on the transgender legislation.

Had she been in favour, she could have contested a Holyrood seat, as she wished, and been a contender now for the leadership.

A KC and quick on her feet, she is respected beyond partisan lines and would have been a natural SNP chief, focused primarily on the constitutional cause.

But she is a non-starter, a thorn in the side of the higher echelons, while the socially conservative but so far reticent Forbes is still in with a chance.

So riven with division in their ranks, the Nationalists would never select the best candidate for the job on merit alone.

Cherry has called for the new leader to reform internal party democracy and ‘the democratic institutions of our parliament and civic society’.

It will take a tough nut to affect such a transformation and perhaps Cherry could have succeeded. But none of the likely line-up – which includes the hapless health minister, Humza Yousaf – is up to the task.

The SNP has a bedrock of support that will survive its disintegration, but as a party of government it has failed miserably under a strong leader. With a lesser talent at the top, its demise is just a matter of time.

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