Mhairi Black

Known for her witty retorts to internet trolls and politicians from rival parties alike, Mhairi Black is the SNP MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South. Born in 1994, Black was just 20 years old when she was first elected in May 2015, making her the youngest MP elected since the Reform Act in 1832. She first joined the SNP to support the ‘Yes’ campaign during the Scottish independence referendum of 2014, earning a politics degree from the University of Glasgow only after she had entered parliament. Black joined the work and pensions select committee the same year, campaigning particularly against the government’s much-discussed handling of the Universal Credit rollout. Her maiden speech, in which she addressed food banks and unemployment, has been viewed online over 10 million times. She has described Westminster as an “old boys’ club […] excluded from reality”. Black was re-elected in 2017 with a reduced majority of 2,541, but which in 2019 increased to 10,679. In January 2020, she was appointed as the SNP’s shadow Scotland secretary.