Sturgeon's purge: why Joanna Cherry had to go

Joanna Cherry is out as the SNP’s Home Office spokeswoman at Westminster. The QC, who also shadowed the Justice Secretary, announced on Twitter that she had been ‘sacked’ from the nationalist frontbench.

Despite hard work, results & a strong reputation I’ve been sacked today from @theSNP front bench. My constituents & fellow party members who gave me a resounding mandate in recent NEC elections should rest assured that I will continue to work hard for them.
— Joanna Cherry KC (@joannaccherry) February 1, 2021

Her departure comes as part of a rejigging of what the party terms ‘the real opposition’. There is some established talent there (Alison Thewliss at Treasury, Alyn Smith at foreign affairs, Stewart McDonald at defence) and some fresh blood in the form of 2019-intake MP Stephen Flynn, bumped up from junior Treasury spokesman to ‘Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy’. (The SNP refers to all its frontbenchers as shadow secretaries of state, which is so ambitious as to be endearing).

The New SNP is personality-led, elite-driven, and ruled by a doctrine that cannot be found anywhere in the party’s constitution

Why, though, have they dispensed with the services of a woman widely regarded as the party’s strongest performer at Westminster? A forensic parliamentary interrogator, especially of Priti Patel? One of the litigants who defeated the government on prorogation at the Supreme Court and forced the reconvening of parliament?