Joanna Cherry has revealed that she threatened to take legal action against the SNP after colleagues in Westminster tried to prevent her from speaking at the conference of a gender-critical charity.

During a 70-minute interview at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the MP said the mood in the party had “palpably changed” for the better since Stephen Flynn had replaced Ian Blackford.

She also said she felt First Minister Humza Yousaf wanted to "heal" the SNP's divisions over the Gender Recognition Reform Bill.

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Ms Cherry said she had experienced homophobic bullying from colleagues under the previous regime.

Asked to give an example, she pointed to the reaction when she agreed to speak at the LGB Alliance conference in 2021. 

She told the audience: “A number of my colleagues harangued and tried to prevent me from speaking at the [LGB alliance] conference and demanded that I have the whip removed.”

She said that she was determined to go and told the party that if they tried to prevent she would see them in court.

Ms Cherry said she believed the tide was turning in the debate around gender and sex, pointing to Labour’s u-turn on self id.

“There are many people with misgivings about self ID scared to speak out because they've seen what's happened to me as a result.

“You know, not only did I lose my front bench position, there was also a determined effort to have me be expelled from the party. Or basically tried to bully me out of position.

"But I think that's over now.

“The leaderships under which that happened, both leaders, have moved on. And certainly, as I said, Stephen Flynn has been immensely supportive.

“We've had civilized discussions about my position on this issue and I'm in touch with Humza, also and I think he wants, my impression is, he wants to engage with a bit of healing about what's going on in the party.”

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Ms Cherry also said she wanted to move to Holyrood.

“I don't want to be in opposition for the rest of my life. I would really like to be in government and that's why I would like to be able to stand for Holyrood.”

“The Westminster group was a very difficult environment for me to work in for a number of years. And one day I'll tell the full story of what happened behind the scenes.

“Certainly since Stephen Flynn has become the leader of the Westminster group that has changed because Stephen is his own man. I think he's one to watch. I think he's potential future SNP leader.”

“The intolerance that has happened within the SNP in recent years, I like to see it as a blip in our party's history. It's over. We move forward in a different way.”

Ms Cherry said she had never considered joining Alex Salmond’s Alba, “because that's what my enemies within the party want me to do and I'm very determined to stay within the SNP and to try and pull it back to where it should be.”

At an event earlier in the week, when speaking about gender reforms, SNP MP Mhairi Black said trans people were “not an intellectual debate.”

Responding to the comments, Ms Cherry said: “I saw my colleague Mhari Black saying she didn't want to have a debate about this. I'm very happy to have an intellectual debate because that's what I'm paid to do,” she added.

She added: “I believe there is a responsibility for those of us elected to legislate to engage with the detail of legislation and with the consequences of legislation.”

“If politicians can't cope with nuance and politicians don't want intellectual debate then they're in the wrong job.”