SNP MP says she is 'surrounded by a******s' in scathing Westminster rant

Mhari Black in the House of Commons

Mhari announced her decision to step down as an MP last month

PA
Holly Bishop

By Holly Bishop


Published: 09/08/2023

- 13:14

Mhari Black blasted the Government on-stage at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival

A Scottish National Party MP, Mhairi Black, has slammed Westminster as being full of ‘a******s’, in a crass rant.

Black made the comment on-stage at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, blasting the Government and saying her time spent there made her “stomach turn”.


The SNP's deputy Westminster leader, who was referred to as the “Baby of the House”, announced her decision last month to stand down at the next general election.

The Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP said: “It's a human decision rather than a political one.

Mhari Black

Mhari said her time in the commons made her stomach turn

PA

"I want to enjoy my life when I realised that I've now spent a third of my life in Westminster, it's just - it makes my stomach turn."

When Graham Spiers, host of the event, suggested that she was thriving in the commons, Black responded by saying “you’re only seeing a three-minute clip.

"You don't see the other 23 hours a week that I've had to spend surrounded by a***holes."

Black said that life in the Commons had affected her personal life.

She pointed to her own honeymoon, which was disrupted by Boris Johnson’s resignation.

To make matters worse, her compensation trip to make up for the interrupted honeymoon was also disrupted, as two days in “a tent [was] put up outside Nicola Sturgeon’s home”.

The 28-year-old, who was elected as an MP just aged 20 in 2015, also refused to rule out a return to Holyrood politics.

She admitted her party would have little “purpose” if they managed to secure independence.

The SNP MP also questioned her own loyalties, saying her vote would be “up for grabs” if there was a Yes victory.

When the host said that her party had been in power too long, Black sighed in response.

“What’s the other options?”

Mhari Black before the launch of the SNP's manifesto before their general election

She was elected as an MP at the age of just 20, in 2015

PA

“Because I think that see if the SNP and the Greens come out of the Government at Holyrood, I think folk are going to get a real shock when all of a sudden tuition fees are coming back, your prescriptions not free, you’re getting charged for that spare bedroom that was getting mitigated for all those years without anybody talking about it.

“So, I still think that the SNP, and certainly this coalition, is the best thing on offer in Scotland just now,” she concluded.

Black admitted that she believed Scotland will eventually gain independence, though said it could be a decade away.

She said: “Whether that happens in the next two years or the next 10 years, I don’t know, but I have no doubt that Scotland will one day be independent, no doubt about it at all.”

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