Joanna Cherry: Nicola Sturgeon is an anti-intellectual who was a Stalinist leader

Ms Cherry, an outspoken critic of the ex-first minister, said those who founded the SNP would be "birling in their graves" at what has happened to it over the last decade.

She said her gripe with Ms Sturgeon was not personal but rather “a clash based on the way that we do politics”.

Ms Cherry said the former SNP leader once considered making her Lord Advocate, Scotland’s top law officer, but their relationship deteriorated from around 2017 onwards.

Ms Sturgeon has been back in the headlines this week due to the release of her memoir, Frankly.

Appearing as a guest on Matt Forde’s Political Party show at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Ms Cherry said: "It's very important for people to understand that my gripe with Nicola is not a personal one. I don't really know Nicola.

"I think she's quite a private person, and that's her prerogative. I've never been close to her. This is not a personality clash.

"This is a clash based on the way that we do politics. I believe in open debate and discussion, and I don't think she does.

"I think she was Stalinist in the way in which she ran the party and the country, and I think she's actually quite anti-intellectual as well. Not setting myself up as a great intellectual, but I'm somebody who is interested in ideas. 

"I've said this before, the Scottish National Party was founded by intellectuals and thinkers, poets, writers, former diplomats like Compton Mackenzie, the great writer. They must be birling in their graves at what's happened to the party over the last decade."

Ms Cherry has been an outspoken critic of the former first minister’s stance on trans issues, as well as her strategy to secure a second independence referendum.

The ex-MP was also an ally of Alex Salmond, the late first minister. Last week, she said she will publish new information about the “conspiracy” against Mr Salmond in her own memoir next year.

Ms Cherry, who was the MP for Edinburgh South West between 2015 and 2024, said she and Ms Sturgeon were never friends, but "got on at the beginning". 

She added: "In fact, in 2016, Nicola and I discussed her idea that she might make me Lord Advocate at the time. So we were on good enough terms for her to be considering that at the time. That's the chief law officer in Scotland.

"But she decided against it. In many ways, that's a huge relief to me. Given what was to follow, I think it would have been extremely difficult for me. But obviously, at that time, she trusted me enough and we got on well enough for her to contemplate that."

She said Ms Sturgeon did not really understand the gay rights movement.

“Nicola has very much presented herself as an LGBT ally in recent years,” Ms Cherry said. “But I think for Nicola, it’s all about the ‘T’. She doesn’t really understand the history of the gay rights movement because she was never part of it, as I have been.

“And she doesn’t really understand that perhaps the interests of same-sex attracted people might sometimes be different from, or indeed conflict with the interests of people who think that gender is more important than sex.”