JOANNA Cherry has said the responsibility for the losses being faced by the SNP lie with Nicola Sturgeon.
Giving her reaction to the exit poll as she arrived at the Edinburgh count where her seat is on a knife edge, Ms Cherry said: “People have lost faith in us.
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“We were a competent Government and the public have lost faith in us as a result of Nicola Sturgeon’s failure in leadership.
“We have not been a competent government in recent years.
“Two things have accused the collapse of the SNP vote, if it has collapsed.
“First of all our core voters are disappointed in us for failing to take advantage of various opportunities over the last few years to deliver independence.
“The opportunities of the Brexit years and the Boris Johnson premiership.
“And I think the second aspect is the people who lent us their vote because they thought we were a very competent government have come to see us as a considerably less competent government.
“The person I hold responsible for both of these issues is Nicola Sturgeon.
“I’ve been a persistent critic of Nicola Sturgeon for many years.
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“If she had listened to her internal critics and spent less time bad mouthing lifelong feminists like me and more time focusing on governing the country well and on the cause of independence then SNP candidates wouldn’t be facing the potential of the significant losses we are facing tonight.”
When asked if she thought Sturgeon should step down from the SNP Ms Cherry said: “I don’t think she should do that but she should face up to her responsibility for what has gone wrong and the party as a whole should address what has gone wrong in recent years.”
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