SILLARS: NIC IS STALIN'S WEE SISTER

Sturgeon blamed for party's election disaster

- PAUL HUTCHEON

SNP veteran Jim Sillars has derided Nicola Sturgeon as "Stalin's wee sister" in an excoriating rebuke of her time as first minister and party leader.

The former MP and depute leader said she had presided over a "leadership cult" and that the SNP's general election annihilation had been a referendum on the Nationalist government.

The SNP fell from 48 seats in 2019 to just nine seats - its worst performance in a generation.

The heavy defeat has led to infighting and finger-pointing at Sturgeon, who quit last year, her successor Humza Yousaf and current FM John Swinney.

Sillars, a long-term critic of centralisation of power in the SNP, has written an open letter to members calling on them to take their party back.