Mhairi Black

Mhairi Black
MP
Member of Parliament
for Paisley and Renfrewshire South
Assumed office
8 May 2015
Preceded by Douglas Alexander
Majority 5,684 (12.3%)
Personal details
Born (1994-09-12) 12 September 1994
Paisley, Scotland
Political party Scottish National Party
Alma mater University of Glasgow
Religion Roman Catholicism[1]
Website Official website

Mhairi Black (/ˈmaːre/,[i] born 12 September 1994) is a Scottish politician. She has been the Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire South since 2015, when she defeated Labour Shadow Foreign Secretary Douglas Alexander.[2]

Black is the current Baby of the House as the youngest member in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.[3] When elected in May 2015, she was 20 years and 237 days old, making her the youngest MP elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom since at least the Reform Act of 1832, replacing James Dickson who was 21 years and 67 days old when elected in 1880.[4]

Early life and views

Born in Paisley in 1994, Black was educated at Lourdes Secondary School, Glasgow, and the University of Glasgow, where she was awarded a first-class honours degree in politics and public policy in June 2015.[3][5][6] At the time of her election she had not yet completed her undergraduate degree, with a final exam on Scottish politics still to be undertaken.[7]

Black has been an active Twitter user since she was 14. Several of her tweets were brought up after her election, including swearing, tweets about her drinking and partying experiences and an incident where she complained about the behaviour of Celtic Football Club fans.[7][8]

Along with other LGBT MPs from the SNP, she expressed her support for same-sex marriage prior to the referendum in Ireland. Asked about her decision to "come out", she replied "I've never been in".[9][10]

Black "is not religious but reads her Bible", and describes herself as a "traditional socialist" citing Tony Benn as her enduring political hero.[11] Her other political inspirations include Keir Hardie and Margo MacDonald.[12]

She is a supporter and season-ticket holder of Partick Thistle.[13] She plays the piano, as was revealed in a Channel 4 News interview with Jon Snow, on 18 September 2015, during which she played theme music from the film Titanic.[14]

Political career

Black became a Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire South in the 2015 general election while still a final year undergraduate student at the University of Glasgow.[15] Her victory over Douglas Alexander, a Labour MP and Shadow Foreign Secretary, has been described as unexpected and an example of a collapse of popularity for the Labour party in Scotland in the 2015 election.[16]

Although she was reported to be the youngest MP since Christopher Monck, Earl of Torrington, who entered the House of Commons at the age of 13 in 1667, Monck was followed by other teenagers until the Parliamentary Elections Act 1695 established 21 as the minimum age of candidacy.[17] Furthermore, until the Reform Act 1832, underage MPs were seldom unseated, with Viscount Jocelyn being 18 when elected in 1806.[18][19] Since the Electoral Administration Act 2006 reduced the age of candidacy from 21 to 18 years, Black is the first person to be elected under its provisions.[20]

On 1 July 2015, it was announced that Black had been appointed to the Work and Pensions Select Committee.[21] She made her maiden speech on 14 July 2015 and this included some criticism of the government's approach to unemployment in her constituency and the growing need for food banks. She said, “Food banks are not part of the welfare state. They are a symbol that the welfare state is failing.”[22] Black also criticised the government over cuts to housing benefit.[23] Her speech was praised by SNP Parliamentary Group Leader, Angus Robertson, who described it as outstanding, principled and passionate.[24] Within five days of her giving this speech, it had been viewed over 10 million times on various media.[24]

Note

^ Black's forename is a Scottish Gaelic form of 'Mary'. In Gaelic, this name is Màiri [maːɾʲɪ] in the nominative case but a Mhàiri [ə'vaːɾʲɪ] in the vocative case, of which Mhairi is a borrowing (similar to the borrowing of Seumas (James) as Hamish via the Gaelic vocative a Sheumais [ə'heːmɪʃ]). However, Black suggests says that her name is a homophone of the word "marry".[25] /ˈmɑːri/ was the pronunciation chosen by Deputy Speaker Eleanor Laing on the occasion of her maiden speech.[26]

References

  1. ↑ Ceridwen Lee (27 August 2015). "Fall in number of Catholic MPs in the House of Commons ahead of landmark debate on assisted dying". The Tablet. Retrieved 16 August 2016.
  2. ↑ "General Election 2015 Results: Paisley & Renfrewshire South". BBC News. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  3. 1 2 Lusher, Adam (8 May 2015). "General Election 2015: Mhairi Black: The 20-year-old who could become the youngest MP since 1667". The Independent. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  4. ↑ Furness, Hannah (8 May 2015). "Election 2015 results: the weird, wonderful and the downright unexpected". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  5. ↑ Leask, David (1 June 2015). "Analysis: SNP bucks trend for privately educated MPs". The Herald. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  6. ↑ "Mhairi Black awarded first class honours degree". BBC News. 26 June 2015. Retrieved 26 June 2015.
  7. 1 2 "Youngest MP Mhairi Black to finish degree despite historic victory". STV. 8 May 2015. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  8. ↑ Cramb, Auslan (8 May 2015). "Meet Mhairi Black, Britain's youngest MP for 350 years, and an SNP firebrand". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  9. ↑ Riley-Smith, Ben (14 May 2015). "Commons has more gay MPs than any other parliament in the world". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  10. ↑ Dinwoodie, Robbie (21 May 2015). "Time to toast our increasingly tolerant society". The Herald. Retrieved 28 May 2015.
  11. ↑ Gander, Kashmira (15 July 2015). "Mhairi Black speech in full". The Independent. Retrieved 15 July 2015.
  12. ↑ Spiers, Graham (1 May 2015). "Graham Spiers Article for the Times". Mhairi Black SNP: Paisley & Renfrewshire South. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  13. ↑ "Mhairi Black MP". Scottish National Party. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  14. ↑ "Jeremy Corbyn is England's answer to the SNP – Mhairi Black". Channel 4 News. 18 September 2015. Retrieved 17 September 2015.
  15. ↑ McKirdy, Euan (8 May 2015). "UK Elections: Mhairi Black, the 20-year-old who's Britain's youngest lawmaker". CNN. Retrieved 12 May 2015.
  16. ↑ Riley-Smith, Ben; Sanghani, Radhika. "Mhairi Black reveals she is getting patted on the back and 'patronised' in House of Commons". Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 30 October 2016.
  17. ↑ "Meet the youngest MP elected since 1667". Newsbeat. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  18. ↑ "House of Commons 1790–1820: III. The Members". History of Parliament Online. 1986. Retrieved 8 May 2015.
  19. ↑ Porritt, Edward; Porritt, Annie Gertrude (Webb) (1903). "XI:Minors and aliens on the exclusion list". The unreformed House of Commons; parliamentary representation before 1832. 1: England and Wales. Cambridge University Press. pp. 222–235.
  20. ↑ Lee, Jeremy (8 May 2015). "10 things about Mhairi Black, Britain's youngest MP since 1667". The Straits Times. Singapore. Retrieved 10 May 2015.
  21. ↑ "Youngest MP Mhairi Black joins pensions committee". BBC News. BBC. 1 July 2015. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
  22. ↑ "Mhairi Black makes maiden speech in the Commons". The Scotsman. 14 July 2015. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  23. ↑ Brooks, Libby (15 July 2015). "SNP's Mhairi Black attacks housing benefit cuts in first Commons speech". The Guardian. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  24. 1 2 "Mhairi Black's maiden speech tops 10m online views". BBC News. Retrieved 19 July 2015.
  25. ↑ Black, Mhairi [MhairiBlack] (23 April 2015). "@PeterAdamSmith @JournoStephen it's pronounced M-hairi, as in 'marry'. Mum went for the complicated spelling!" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  26. ↑ Channel 4 News (14 July 2015). Mhairi Black: SNP MP's maiden speech in full. Retrieved 27 November 2015.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Mhairi Black.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Douglas Alexander		 Member of Parliament
for Paisley and Renfrewshire South
2015–present 		Incumbent
Preceded by
Pamela Nash		 Baby of the House
2015–present
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