Mhairi Black

Mhairi Black in 2019

Mhairi Black (born 12 September 1994) is a Scottish politician, a former deputy Westminster leader of the Scottish National Party, and the Member of Parliament for Paisley and Renfrewshire South from 2015 to the 2024 general election.

Quotes

2015–2022

• Now the government, quite rightly, pays for me – through taxpayer's money – to be able live in London whilst I serve my constituents. My housing is subsidised by the taxpayer. Now the Chancellor [then George Osborne] in his budget said, "It is not fair that families earning over £40,000 in London should have their rents paid for by other working people." But it is ok so long as you're an MP? In this budget the Chancellor also abolished any housing benefit for anyone below the age of 21. So we are now in the ridiculous situation whereby, because I am an MP, not only am I the youngest, but I am also the only 2o-year-old in the whole of the UK that the Chancellor is prepared to help with housing.
  • From her maiden speech in the House of Commons, as cited in "Watch: SNP MP Mhairi Black’s killer anti-austerity maiden speech to the House of Commons", New Statesman (14 July 2015)

• I had people wanting me to write an autobiography: I was born. I went to school. I left. I fried a fish. And now I’m an MP. They were offering me a four-book deal!
• I know I'm not going to become comfortable in Westminster because I'm fundamentally uncomfortable there. I don't want to be there. I don't want to make decisions there.
  • From an interview with Zoe Williams, as cited in "Mhairi Black: 'I was born. I went to school. I left. I fried a fish. Now I’m an MP'", The Guardian (9 October 2015)

• You talk shite, hen.
  • During a parliamentary debate against Conservative MP Caroline Nokes (7 March 2017), as cited in "Mhairi Black Appears To Mouth 'You Talk Shite, Hen' At Tory Minister In Housing Benefit Debate", HuffPost (9 March 2017)

• So after spending weeks running down the clock telling us the EU will never reconsider the backstop, the Prime Minister is now going to head back to Brussels to ask them to reconsider the backstop.
  • (29 January 2019)

• Just seen a stag do floating down the Thames. As their boat went past, they began pointing at Parliament chanting, 'you don't know what you're doing, you don't know what you're doing...' Probably the most accurate commentary yet.
  • (9 April 2019)

• Anybody ever watch Gilmore Girls? Mind when Paris built herself a fort in the newsroom of the paper so nobody could talk to her? That's the Prime Minister.
  • (22 May 2019)

• You sound if I head to bed, Sajid Javid? Absolutely shattered.
  • Response to Sajid Javid's Conservative leadership campaign, where he refused to allow a second Scottish independence referendum, mocking his apparent request for permission. (29 May 2019)

• Ooo I'm back to being a ned this week, what a buzz. I'm sure it'll be back to a middle class liar with a fake accent next week though.
  • Responding to trolling and harassment on Twitter (30 May 2019)

• We have the lowest pensions in Europe, the lowest sick pay, we pretend the minimum wage is a living wage when it’s not. We miss our own economic targets time and time again. We’re happy to break international law. We are turning into a country where words hold no value and over the last 12 years I fear we are sleepwalking closer and closer to the f-word and I know everyone is scared to say it for fear of sounding over the top or being accused of going too far. But I say this with all sincerity, when I say the f-word, I’m talking about facism. Fascism wrapped in red, white and blue.
  • "Mhairi Black goes viral with speech about fascism in the UK", The National (Scotland, 19 May 2022)

• I've been challenged going into female toilets before, course I have. Are you kidding?
  I'm the sort of person who can deal with it, but there was one time I didn't even have to and it was one of the most powerful things I've experienced. There was a woman beside me who said [to the person questioning me] "Who the hell do you think you are, who are you to police this?"
  That is exactly what I needed in that situation, I didn’t have power, but the woman beside me did.
  In this debate, I'm the person with the power and I'm not leaving trans people behind.
  • From an interview, as cited in Hannah Rodger "SNP MP Mhairi Black: 'I've been challenged going into female toilets. I'm not leaving transgender people behind'", The Herald (Glasgow, 1 September 2019)

2023–present

• In recent days, footage has emerged of the former chancellor and the former chair of the 1922 committee offering their services for £60,000. On top of that, the former health secretary offered his wisdom for £10,000 a day. Can I ask the Deputy Prime Minister, when he is inevitably booted out of office, what will his going rate be?
  • "Mhairi Black mocks Tory MPs caught up in row over £10,000 per day consultancy work", Daily Record" (29 March 2023)

• The Deputy Prime Minister, I thank him for his kind words and we did join this place at the same time and I'm pretty sure we'll be leaving at the same time.
  • "SNP's Mhairi Black jokes Deputy Prime Minister will lose his Commons seat" Evening Standard (5 July 2023).
  • From an exchange at Prime Minister's Questions with Oliver Dowden (standing in for Rishi Sunak) after Mhairi Black announced she was standing down at the next general election; the Conservatives were in a weak position in the opinion polls. Both MPs entered the Commons at the 2015 general election. Dowden himself was returned as an MP at the 2024 general election; his party was heavily defeated.

• Being trans is not something to be feared. It’s just an aspect of a human being, the same way being gay is just an aspect of who I am. [...] The only place as far as I’m concerned that my sex matters, as opposed to my gender, is in a medical setting. That's between me and a doctor.
• I'm a woman, I'm a lesbian, nobody's cancelling me and I want trans people to be able to live with dignity and happiness and for newspapers and politicians to leave them the hell alone.
  • At an Edinburgh Festival Fringe event, "Trans people should be left 'the hell alone', Mhairi Black says", The Times (8 August 2023)

• If you are a human being, you are not an intellectual debate and nor should you be made to be one.
• Once upon a time intellectuals made great prolific statements about race, saying "I think you'll find the statistics show more BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) people, crime goes up".
  They might have been an intellectual, but they were also a racist.
  The vast majority of people don’t know a lot about the trans community, and why should they? They are less than one per cent of the population.
• Folk don't recognise the difference between being unfairly cancelled and being held accountable, those are two very different things.
  Criticising someone for what they said in public, in front of an audience, that's criticism - that's not anyone attacking you or denying you because you're a lesbian or whatever. It's nonsense.
  There are definite bad actors at play, radicalising people who are vulnerable, radicalising people who are too online, and using this small community as a wedge issue to create chaos.
• Some of the arguments I’ve seen by people who are gender critical, if you start picking away at it, are some of the most misogynistic arguments.
  Some of the worst abuse I've experienced is from women because they don't see me as feminine enough and doing things a woman should do.
  People bang on about single sex spaces, but I've had more grief in women's toilets in the past five years than I have had in my life, and it's because I'm not as feminine as 50-year-old Karen expects me to be.
  That is not a good basis for progress.
  • From an event at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, as cited in "There are 'definite bad actors' in the debate on trans rights, says Mhairi Black MP", The Scotsman (8 August 2023)
  • The Edinburgh Festival Fringe event was at The Stand Comedy Club according to an article on the Telegraph website

• I've genuinely never worried about a career. [...] I can see how politicians game play – it's a long game of chess for many of them. For me, it's either right or wrong, sensible or stupid.
• [On her home life, she married her female partner in 2022] the rampant feminist that she is, cannot wait to have a housewife.
  • Interviewed by Libby Brooks, as cited in "'What am I going to do with my life?!' Mhairi Black on quitting the 'depressing' Commons at 29 – with no regrets", The Guardian (3 June 2024)