Joanna Cherry

Joanna Catherine Cherry (born 18 March 1966) is a Scottish politician and lawyer serving as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Edinburgh South West since 2015.

Cherry was born on 18 March 1966 to Mary Margaret (née Haslette) and Thomas Alastair Cherry.

She was educated at Holy Cross primary school, then at St Margaret's Convent School in Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh.

Following her graduation, Cherry worked as a research assistant with the Scottish Law Commission (1990) before practising as a solicitor with the Edinburgh legal firm Brodies WS until 1995.

She also worked as a part-time tutor in constitutional law, family law and civil court practice at the University of Edinburgh from 1990 to 1996.

Cherry was admitted as an advocate in 1995, with a particular interest in employment and industrial relations, health and safety, mental health, personal injury and professional negligence.

She served as a Standing Junior Counsel to the Scottish Government from 2003 to 2008, and as an Advocate Depute and Senior Advocate Depute from 2008 until 2011.

She was appointed a Queen's Counsel in 2009 (becoming a King's Counsel on the death of Elizabeth II) and was an advocate with the Arnot Manderson stable within the Faculty of Advocates until her election to parliament.

Cherry set up the "Lawyers for Yes" group, which campaigned for a "Yes" (pro-independence) vote in the 2014 Scottish independence referendum.

A member of the Scottish National Party (SNP), she was the party's Shadow Home Secretary and Shadow Secretary of State for Justice in the House of Commons from 2015 to 2021.

In February 2015, she was adopted as the Scottish National Party (SNP) candidate for Edinburgh South West in the May 2015 United Kingdom general election, winning the seat, previously held by former Chancellor Alistair Darling with a majority of over 8,000.

Following her election, Cherry was appointed as the SNP spokesperson for Justice and Home Affairs at Westminster.

In September 2016, she issued an apology after defending a comedy rap group Witsherface performance at a pro-independence event that had been criticised as homophobic.

The performance had called Conservative leader Ruth Davidson "Dykey' D" and had portrayed her making her inappropriate comments towards SNP MP Mhairi Black.

In May 2017, Cherry apologised for telling journalists that a nurse, who had told a TV debate audience she had been unable to survive on her salary and had to use food banks, was suspected to be the wife of a Conservative councillor.

False claims about Claire Austin were retweeted by other SNP politicians and the nurse experienced online and offline harassment.

She held her seat in the June 2017 general election although with a reduced majority of just over 1,000 votes, making her seat the most marginal in Edinburgh at the time.

Following the election, she came second to Ian Blackford by a few votes to succeed Angus Robertson as SNP Westminster group leader.

In October 2017, she was an observer at the 2017 Catalan independence referendum.

In May 2019, executives from Facebook and Twitter appeared before the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Human Rights, of which Cherry was a member, and faced accusations over the way they handled abuse and harassment of parliamentarians on social media.

Cherry cited several abusive tweets, that were not removed swiftly by Twitter, something the company's head of UK government, public policy and philanthropy, Katy Minshall, described as "absolutely an undesirable situation".

Following the meeting, Cherry received police protection whilst attending her constituency surgery, having received a death threat sent via social media.

Following a High Court ruling in May 2019, in favour of The Daily Telegraph, The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority released figures confirming that 377 MPs had had their parliamentary credit cards suspended for "late, incomplete or incorrect expenses claims since 2015".

Cherry was included on that list, with the paper reporting that she had had her official credit card repeatedly suspended for failing to repay money on time.

On 11 May 2019 The Times reported that Cherry was being investigated by the House of Commons over bullying complaints from four former employees.

Cherry rejected the allegations, and alleged that they were part of a politically motivated 'smear' campaign, from those within the SNP ranks who opposed her and her views.

One former staff member took the complaint forward, alleging that Cherry both condoned bullying by her office manager and partook in bullying behaviour herself.

Cherry was exonerated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, and given leave to issue a statement to that effect – "I'm pleased to be able to advise that I have been exonerated after an independent investigation into complaints that I had either condoned or been engaged in bullying within my constituency office. As I predicted, the allegations have not been upheld."

Cherry was the leading litigant in the Scottish court case challenging the five-week prorogation of Parliament by Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Her case Cherry v Advocate General for Scotland, together with a case brought in England and Wales by Gina Miller, was ultimately successful in the Supreme Court, resulting in the quashing of the prorogation on 24 September 2019.

Cherry was re-elected as MP for Edinburgh South West in the 2019 general election, with an increased majority of nearly 12,000.

In February 2020, Cherry announced that she was seeking nomination from the SNP Edinburgh Central constituency branch to run as the candidate for Edinburgh Central in the Scottish Parliament and would stand down as an MP in the House of Commons if elected.

Angus Robertson also announced his intention to seek nomination for the Edinburgh Central constituency.

In July 2020, Cherry announced she was ruling out a bid for Holyrood, stating that the conditions for standing as an MSP were unreasonable and made a fair contest involving her "impossible".

Cherry was sacked from the SNP's front bench on 1 February 2021 by the party leadership.

Cherry tweeted: "Despite hard work, results and a strong reputation I've been sacked today from the SNP front bench."

The party's Westminster leader Ian Blackford said: "Team working and cooperation are key to ensure results and this reshuffle will give us a strong team to take us forward."

An SNP spokesman said in a statement: "Joanna Cherry was removed from the front bench because of unacceptable behaviour, which did not meet the standards expected of a front bench spokesperson – not because of the views she holds."

On 21 February 2021, Cherry was criticised by the Scottish branch of PEN International for her attempts to silence critics who questioned her by threatening defamation action.

After Cherry disputed she had taken legal action, letters from her solicitors on her behalf were published.