Mhairi Black has branded Westminster an “old boys club” overrun with “subtle sexism” in a damning summary of Parliament.
As a 20-year-old student at the University of Glasgow, Black became the youngest serving MP in Westminster for centuries when she beat Labour MP Douglas Alexander to win the Paisley & Renfrewshire South seat for the SNP in the 2015 elections.
An outspoken politician, Black made her mark on Westminster by using her maiden speech in the Commons to launch a scathing attack on the Conservatives.
After being elected, Black was keen to establish herself as someone the public could identify with and criticised Parliament for being filled with “out-of-touch politicians who are often self-serving and self-interested”. Speaking to The Guardian, Black said her opinion of Westminster was now even lower than before she launched her political career. She claimed that as a young, female MP who is also gay, she was already a minority in Westminster, where“ tradition is allowed to rule over reason”.
“All the things that I fought for and argued for during the referendum and during the General Election have unfortunately turned out to be totally true," she said.
“It's a complete boys club - totally. If you want to talk barriers into politics I cover quite a lot of bases. I am young, female, gay and SNP - so we're hardly the most popular down in Westminster.
“But even when I'm there I'm taken aback by in the first instance how patronising some folk were and in the second instance how sexist people were, and it's subtle sexism. The arrogance and the ‘darlings’ and the ‘don’t worry yourself’ - it’s so excluded from reality. It’s a total world unto itself.”
