Nicola Sturgeon has been accused by a former SNP MP of presiding over "blunder after blunder" during her time in Scotland's top job.
The First Minister last week surpassed Alex Salmond as the longest serving head of the Scottish Government and led her party to another victory at local council elections earlier this month.
But Sturgeon's record in office has been challenged by a veteran Nationalist who claimed she had overseen "levels of incompetence that are impossible to hide".
Jim Sillars, a former depute leader of the SNP, attacked the First Minister over what he viewed as repeated failures over education and the economy.
The former Govan MP also argued Sturgeon had failed to advance the case for Scottish independence despite the unpopularity of Boris Johnson.
In a scathing blog post, Sillars said: "In 2014, when Nicola Sturgeon took command of the SNP, party and government, Scotland was vibrant - we had just had a great debate with the voter turn-out in the September referendum the highest ever.
"Today, however, Scotland is widely regarded to be in a state of stasis, with the SNP party’s internal democracy emasculated, its members in thrall to the cult of personality, and Scotland’s government, politics and economy stuck in the quagmire of mediocrity.
"Nicola Sturgeon is in total control of the party and government, so the responsibility is hers for failure to build that rock solid independence majority, for the deplorable state of Scotland’s education, health service, transport infrastructure, blunders on energy, and all round dispiriting incompetence."
Sillars concluded: "Although her record is strewn with error, Nicola Sturgeon looks and feels safe.
"But failure after failure, blunder after blunder, levels of incompetence that are impossible to hide, eventually take their toll of reputation.
"Democracy has a habit of catching up and dismissing politicians who promise and fail."
Sillars is well-respected by many in the pro-independence movement after he won a famous victory at the 1988 Govan by-election - widely viewed as a turning point in the history of the modern SNP.
But he has become a persistent critic of the party in recent years.
In March this year the Record revealed how Sillars had personally donated £2,000 to the re-election campaign of Labour MSP Jackie Baillie ahead of the 2021 Holyrood election.
The SNP's failure to unseat Baillie in her Dumbarton constituency cost the party a majority of MSPs in the Scottish Parliament.
Toni Giugliano, the defeated SNP candidate, said at the time: "Mr Sillars has more in common with Jackie Baillie than he does with the SNP these days - so I’m not surprised. It’s only a matter of time before he’s asked to be the frontman for the next Better Together campaign."
An SNP spokesman said: "Jim Sillars called for independence to be de-prioritised, nothing he says can be taken seriously."
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