Joanna Cherry has insisted she has no plans to join Alex Salmond’s Alba party after the former First Minister published a picture of himself with the SNP MP.
Salmond last night shared a festive image on social media of the Edinburgh South West MP flanked by himself and Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, who is a leading figure in Alba.
The picture in front of a Christmas tree - in what appears to be the foyer of a London hotel - was captioned with a paraphrased verse from Robert Burns: “Women and men o’ independent mind...”
The tweet prompted speculation on social media that Cherry could become another high-profile defector from the SNP to Alba.
But the QC stamped out the flames on Wednesday morning.
She told the Daily Record: “I have no intention of defecting to Alba. I was elected as an SNP MP and intend to continue as one.”
Cherry is one of the few leading SNP MPs to back demands for an alternative path to an early referendum and thinks that a legal challenge to the Conservative Government’s refusal to grant powers for a vote can be mounted.
As a QC she was one of the driving forces behind the successful challenge to Boris Johnson’s move to close down parliament during the Brexit debate and has become a respected Commons voice since being elected in 2015.
But she has found herself isolated from the SNP leadership because of her support for Salmond and was dropped by Ian Blackford from the Westminster front bench.
She has also been attacked by activists over her feminist stance in the trans rights debate which has polarised opinion in the SNP.
Salmond failed to make a break-through in the Scottish parliament elections with his new party but the former SNP leader has said that Alba, which demands an immediate independence ballot, will stand in local government elections next year.
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