SNP Westminster leader Stephen Flynn has offered his support to Joanna Cherry in her legal battle with a comedy club founded by one of his other MPs. 

Last week it emerged that The Stand had cancelled a Fringe show with the politician because a number of "key operational staff, including venue management and box office personnel" said they were unwilling to work on the event because of “concerns about Ms Cherry's views.”

The Edinburgh South West MP has been a prominent opponent of the Scottish Government’s Gender Recognition Reform Bill, particularly over plans to allow transgender people to legally change their sex without the need for medical diagnosis, often referred to as self-ID.

The Stand was founded by Tommy Sheppard. He stepped back from the day-to-day running of the club after he became the MP for Edinburgh East in 2015, but is still a director and owns the majority of shares in parent company, Salt N Sauce Promotions. 

READ MORE: Joanna Cherry starts legal action over cancelled Fringe show at Stand

On Monday night, Ms Cherry threatened to take the club to court unless it reinstated her Edinburgh Fringe show, apologised for cancelling it, and admitted that they acted unlawfully. 

The Stand has yet to respond. 

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Asked for his views, Mr Flynn told BBC Radio Scotland: “As a point of principle I don’t agree with Joanna on this wider topic but I would defend her right to be able to ensure her voice is heard, and hopefully a compromise position can be found.”

Speaking during a debate organised by the Reform Scotland thinktank, Ms Cherry said Mr Sheppard had approached her and asked her to take part in an event at this year’s Fringe. 

“I said, yes, I'd love to. I'd done a similar event at the fringe last year with Matt Forde that seemed to have been quite well received. 

“The tickets were advertised and then in March, a comedian who is a trans woman who was due to be appearing at the stand in Glasgow, cancelled her performance and made an attack on me. I think what she said was something along the lines of I had devoted my life to excluding trans people from public life, which is ludicrous really, and a statement with no factual basis whatsoever. 

“The Stand got a bit twitchy at that point but put out a fairly reasonable statement about how they're against discrimination. And then matters escalated.”

READ MORE: Cherry says gender critical views have ruined SNP leadership hopes

Ms Cherry said the venue told her 10 days ago that the event was going to be cancelled “because they couldn't staff it in a way that was legally compliant, to use their words. ‘because their staff are not comfortable with me’.”

"It's not so much an issue of free speech as discrimination,” she added. “I was invited by The Stand to appear. They offered their venue and services at their venue for the interview with me and then they withdrew it because of my gender-critical beliefs.” 

She said if the club did not agree to her demands then she would take them to court as it is “really important that we have a clear statement in Scotland in a case that has some publicity that discriminating against women and indeed men like me who hold these beliefs is unlawful.” 

Ms Cherry said she had been forced to take action because “the political class seem to have been seized by a collective cowardice on this issue with a few honourable exceptions.”

She also said there was an “alarming collective ignorance of equality law and human rights law.” 

“I'm doing this partly for myself because if I don't challenge this now, this is going to keep happening to me and what's being said about me is very damaging to my reputation. 

“I might not always be an MP if I were to lose my seat next year. There's various career opportunities that might be closed down to me if I don't challenge this discrimination and this attack on my reputation.

“But I am doing it also for other women because I come across many women in the course of my work, who find themselves not just being no platformed but losing their jobs or their means to earn a livelihood.”

The Stand said they would not be commenting until after they have discussed the matter with solicitors.

Scottish Conservative equalities spokesperson Rachael Hamilton said: “Joanna Cherry has once again lifted the lid on the squalid bitterness and personal enmities that run through the SNP.

“It’s clear she has paid a heavy price for standing up for her beliefs on GRR – and believes her SNP colleagues have betrayed her.

“The decision of The Stand comedy club – owned by her fellow SNP MP Tommy Sheppard – to ‘cancel’ her is the latest example of her being treated as a pariah.

“The SNP is a party so gripped by civil war, that, as well as being incapable of governing itself, it’s incapable of governing Scotland and focusing on the public’s real priorities.”