SNP's Cherry demands apology from fellow MP Black

Mhairi Black is standing down from Westminster at the next election

The SNP's Joanna Cherry has demanded an apology from her fellow MP Mhairi Black after she said some SNP members were too "comfortable" at Westminster.

She also called for Ms Black, the SNP's deputy leader at Westminster, to "live up to her responsibilities or give the post over to someone who will".

Ms Black, who has been contacted for comment, made her "comfortable" remark on Times Radio last week.

She said the culture of Westminster meant MPs lost touch with reality.

Ms Black has already announced that she will be leaving Westminster at the next election and has previously described the House of Commons as an "outdated, sexist and toxic" working environment.

The Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP cited safety concerns, social media abuse and unsociable hours as she explained her decision.

She has also recently spoken to the BBC of her struggles with imposter syndrome, the term given for a psychological state where people doubt their skills and accomplishments and have a fear of being seen as a fraud.

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In the interview last week she went on to criticise colleagues in the House of Commons, who she said had settled too comfortably into life at Westminster.

"I've seen folk who you would have thoughts would have been the first one marching to the border with a claymore but now absolutely love being in London. I wouldn't have expected that," she told Times Radio.

Speaking on the BBC's Good Morning Scotland on Monday, Ms Cherry, said she believed the SNP's Westminster leader Stephen Flynn was doing a great job but criticised Ms Black's comments.

"When he made Mhairi his deputy he gave her a position of great responsibility, particularly in an election year when so many of her colleagues are facing difficult fights to hang on to their seats and I don't think it's appropriate for Mhairi to be attacking her colleagues in public," she said.

"She needs to live up to her responsibilities or give the post over to someone who will.

"And I am hoping that Mhairi will apologise to her colleagues this week."

Ms Cherry denied that she or her SNP colleagues were "too comfortable at Westminster" and defended their policy of sitting and voting in the House of Commons.

"The SNP is not an abstentionist party and if Mhairi wants to change that policy then she needs to put the work in to do it," she said.

"At the moment my constituents expect me to be present at Westminster and representing them there in relation to important issues such as the Post Office scandal."

Joanna Cherry has called on her colleague Mhairi Black to apologise

And she defended her own record of working with MPs from other parties.

"It's not easy being an opposition member of parliament at Westminster but if you work and if you are present there and if you build alliances then you can achieve successes," she said.

"I've shown that in the past when I've built a cross-party alliance to stop Boris Johnson's unlawful prorogation of parliament and many of my SNP colleagues have had significant successes in relation to other issues

"But it's hard work doing that. It's not always terribly glamorous. It's easy to stand up and make a speech, it's much harder to work hard behind the scenes to create alliances to achieve reform and until independence comes we'll still have SNPs at Westminster and we're paid to do a job and be there and I believe in doing that," she added.

The SNP have been approached for comment.