SCOTTISH independence can only be achieved through cross-party input, Joanna Cherry has said.
The SNP MP made the comment during an interview with Matt Forde at his Edinburgh Fringe show, The Political Party, on Monday.
Cherry added that a bid to break up the Union “cannot just be about” the SNP, suggesting support should be sought from members of other UK parties who “quietly support independence”.
Reflecting on the cross-party efforts to challenge Boris Johnson’s proroguing of the UK Parliament in 2019, the MP for Edinburgh South West said: “I think what I learned from that is if you want to achieve anything in politics, you really have to work cross-party.
“That’s the big lesson of Scottish devolution. Devolution was delivered by cross-party working.
“Independence will only come with cross-party working. It can’t just be about my party.
“We have to reach out to other parties, and I don’t just mean the smaller independence parties. I also mean members of other parties, who are what I call the persuadables who quietly support independence. These people exist in the Labour Party and the LibDems.”
Cherry also spoke out about her experience in receiving online abuse, and her disappointment in having had “no support whatsoever” from her party’s leadership.
Reflecting on public criticism from within her own party, the SNP MP said: “We do have a rule that we’re not supposed to criticise policy or each other in public.”
But she added: “In the last few years, you will have seen many members of the SNP and parliamentarians calling me a transphobe, a bigot, calling for me to have the whip removed.
“And worse, you know, most people will know that a member of the SNP threatened to rape me and went to court, and was convicted of that.
“Nobody in my party has ever condemned it, because, I presume, people are afraid to condemn someone who threatens to rape a transphobe in case they themselves are called transphobic.”
Cherry continued: “I’ve come in for a fair amount of criticism for diverging from party policy on this issue of self-identification.
“In actual fact, the SNP conference has never passed a motion to support self-identification. The SNP manifesto supported reforming the Gender Recognition Act, which I have no problem with.”
She said that she does not understand why the SNP’s party leader, Nicola Sturgeon, and Westminster leader, Ian Blackford, have not yet reached out to offer support over her receiving online abuse, but added that she has received support “privately from colleagues” in the aftermath.
“I think, maybe, they are afraid that if they’re seen supporting me, they will be tarred with the same brush,” Cherry said, “and it’s just a very unfortunate state of affairs that we put ourselves into.”
She added that she was left “very upset” after a leaked recording appeared to show Blackford calling for support for former colleague Patrick Grady, who resigned his party membership after an investigation was conducted over accusations of inappropriate behaviour.
“I thought it was interesting to hear exhortations of support for a colleague that has been found guilty of sexual harassment, and no exhortations of support for a female colleague who was threatened with rape by a party member,” she said.
