JOANNA Cherry has today stepped up her attack on her sacking from the SNP’s frontbench team at Westminster and compared the presentation of her dismissal to "Stalinist revisionism".

The SNP MP accused the party’s leadership of double standards, and also referenced the chief executive Peter Murrell, the husband of Nicola Sturgeon, who had initially refused to return to a Holyrood committee investigating the mishandling of complaints against Alex Salmond. 

Cherry, a QC, was dismissed from her position as home affairs and justice spokeswoman on Monday with disloyalty to the First Minister later cited to the press as a reason.

Writing in The National today, Cherry said: “I got 30 minutes’ notice of the announcement, no proper explanation of why I was being sacked and no acknowledgement of or any thanks at all for the work I have done in that role over the last five-and-a-half years.

“Indeed, the press release announcing the reshuffle was a masterly piece of Stalinist revisionism in which I was not even mentioned. Airbrushed from history. A non-person. Sounds familiar?”

READ MORE: Joanna Cherry: Why my removal from the SNP front bench smacks of double standards

The Stalinist accusation was seized on by critics of Cherry today.

WG Saraband tweeted: "Coming late to this but comparing an opposition party reshuffle to Stalinism is one hell of a take, good grief."

He added: "The reshuffle didn't come out of nowhere. It's normal in politics for the leadership of a party to take action against those undermining it, or even those elected representatives who write for & share blogs entirely obsessed with disseminating anti-SNP conspiracies & sentiments."

He continued: "If anything, the only thing I'm surprised in all of the recent events is that the leadership was surprisingly patient and took too long before finally doing something about this self-sabotaging indiscipline & inability to play as part of the team, with an election so close to us."

Cherry won praise for her successful legal challenge to Boris Johnson’s attempt to prorogue parliament in his bid to prevent MPs thwarting hisi Brexit plans, but fell out with the SNP leadership over the independence strategy, Salmond and the reform or the Gender Recognition Act.

The Edinburgh South West MP has advocated a harder push to independence and ahead of the SNP conference last year called for Holyrood to introduce legisation to hold a vote if Boris Johnson failed to agree a new plebiscite.

At the time the SNP conference committee rejected motions submitted to the event on the so-called Plan B approach, but last month the party announced a new alternative strategy which appeared to endorse Cherry's plan.

READ MORE: Why is the SNP infighting now with independence in our grasp?

In her column today she accused the party over double standards for her sacking suggesting colleagues had broken party discipline or high standards of conduct without consequences.

“It’s fine to publicly call women, including survivors of sex abuse and your constituents, ‘Jeremy Hunts’ when they write to you with concerns about self-identification of gender... If you are part of the party’s old guard and male, it’s fine to publicly rubbish the party’s conference-backed policy on Brexit and a second EU poll and to defy the whip repeatedly.

"You won’t be disciplined, in fact, you will be promoted,” she wrote.

READ MORE: Can the SNP restore calm to their ranks? We speak to people on both sides

“It’s fine for a parliamentarian to repeatedly tweet and retweet unfounded allegations about a colleague leading to a tsunami of abuse culminating in threats of sexual violence. If you complain you are the problem.

"And it’s fine to refuse to give evidence to a committee of the Scottish Parliament and to remain in post whilst members of that inquiry call for you to be investigated for perjury.

"But it is not fine to advocate for a policy which the party leadership then adopts ... And it is not fine to get yourself elected to the NEC with a mandate of more votes than all the other candidates put together.”

On the Plan B issue, she argued there was a lack of opportunities to discuss policy and saying she was not told about the new strategy until she read about it in The National when Constitution Affairs Secretary Michael Russell unveiled it.

She wrote: "I really do understand why people say – “sort this out in private, it’s harming the cause”, but please be aware there is no internal way to properly discuss policy or strategy and there is no functioning link between MPs and the leadership.

"I know people were shocked that I first saw the 11-point plan on a Saturday morning in The National like everyone else, but that is how things are."

READ MORE: SNP sack Joanna Cherry: Blackford told MP she 'upsets people'

Responding to her views, an SNP spokesman said: "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."

Cherry's sacking comes after months of tensions inside the party's Westminster group.

It was reported earlier this week that at least one MP was left in tears when a bitter tussle about transgender rights boiled over at the SNP’s weekly meeting the week earlier in Westminster.

According to a report in The Times, one MP told his aide: “It was very hostile, there are some MPs crying.”

He said that a group of his colleagues were “very vocal, saying ‘This party’s not doing enough for trans people and now Humza has attacked them with the amendment’.”

A bitter rift has opened in the SNP over two proposed pieces of legislation around hate crime and gender recognition, with reforms such as self-identification championed by party groups including Young Scots for Independence but opposed by some feminists in the party, represented by Women’s Pledge.

READ MORE: Joanna Cherry: Holyrood should hold indyref2 if Boris Johnson blocks new vote

Parts of the two camps align on either side of the confrontation between Sturgeon and Salmond, which is also playing out at an inquiry into the handling of complaints against the former First Minister.

The row at Westminster followed the decision by Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf, to amend the Hate Crime Bill that would have enabled opponents of self-identification — who may have faced prosecution for “stirring up hatred” — to challenge the view of the SNP leadership that trans women are women without facing the threat of arrest.

When one MP complained of a lack of respect for older women in the party, she was told “older women don’t have the monopoly on feminism,” according to the aide.

A female MP is said to have left the meeting in tears.

Blackford is said to have ended the discussion, telling his colleagues he would deal with the matter. Yousaf withdrew his amendment on Monday.

The row at the Westminster meeting broke out after reports on social media of young members quitting the party in droves because of alleged transphobia.

Within minutes of the meeting ending Sturgeon took to Twitter to make an “unscripted” appeal for these activists to rejoin the SNP.

She was praised online by some MPs, MSPs and activists for showing “what leadership looks like”. Blackford signalled his agreement by posting a trans rights banner.