SNP leadership: Joanna Cherry warns against 'stitch up' over successor to Humza Yousaf

Edinburgh MP says party needs ‘complete reset’

Edinburgh South West SNP MP Joanna Cherry has warned against a “stitch up” over Humza Yousaf’s successor as SNP leader and First Minister.

As leading party figures rally behind former Deputy First Minister John Swinney, who has said he is “seriously considering” putting his name forward, Ms Cherry said the new leader should be chosen by members, not “men in grey suits” and argued the party needed “a complete reset”.

Mr Swinney - who was SNP leader from 2000 until 2004 - has already been backed by the party’s Westminster leader Stephen Flynn, former Westminster leader Ian Blackford as well as Health Secretary Neil Gray and Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth, who were both previously mentioned as potential leadership contenders.

Edinburgh South West SNP MP Joanna Cherry has warned against a stitch-up.

Kate Forbes - who narrowly lost to Mr Yousaf in last year’s leadership contest - has yet to say whether she will enter the race.

Ms Cherry tweeted: “As Humza, who should be thanked for his service, will remain FM until we have a new leader there is no need for an unseemly rush by the (old) boys club to stitch up the succession. The leader of the SNP should be chosen by our members not by men in grey suits,

“When Stephen Flynn took over as leader of the SNP Westminster group he worked hard to heal some of the division that had grown up under the previous leadership & to change the tone at PMQs & in media appearances. We need that sort of approach at Holyrood.

“John Swinney is hugely respected across our party but the lesson of the last year is that the SNP needs a complete reset. We must go forward not backwards. Kate was right when she said that continuity would not cut it. The next leader must deliver change.”