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SNP’s Mhairi Black: Westminster is a ‘toxic environment’
The Scottish politician is standing down at the next election
The SNP MP Mhairi Black is to stand down at the next election, she told a podcast today. Speaking to Emily Maitlis on The News Agents, Black said that Westminster is a “toxic environment” which has had an adverse effect on her “body and mind”.
Telling Maitlis that she was “tired”, the 28-year-old MP told Maitlis that her decision was a direct result of operating in “one of the most unhealthy workplaces that you could ever be in” and “a poisonous place”. More, “you can never really switch off” around fellow politicians, according to Black, as they’re frequently “looking for [professional] opportunities” rather than forging genuine personal friendships. Going further in her resignation letter, the MP referred to Westminster as “outdated” and “sexist” and denounced the UK Government’s “cruel policies”.
The Paisley and Renfrewshire South representative was elected in 2015 at the age of just 20, making her the youngest MP in the House of Commons for 350 years. She remained the youngest member of the House until Labour MP Nadia Whittome’s election in 2019. Since December of last year, Black has been the Deputy Leader of the SNP at Westminster
Black stressed that “I don’t regret spending any of the time doing what I’ve done” and “fighting for what I believe in”. She follows the party’s former leader in the Commons, Ian Blackford, who announced earlier this month that he would not be seeking reelection.
Reacting to Black’s interview, former SNP leader and Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon tweeted, “Both gutted and entirely understanding of this. Her reasons resonate.” Sturgeon described her as a “unique talent” and expressed the hope that her withdrawal from frontline politics would only be “temporary”. In her resignation letter, Black stated that her immediate political future lies “as a campaigner rather than a candidate”.
28 year old describes the HoC as “one of the most unhealthy workplaces that you could ever be in” and “a poisonous place”. having spent all her adult life there.
I think she needs to get out in the real world and experience some other unhealthy workplaces to make such a comparison. Of course she will move seamlessly into some well paid activist/quango job and so will not have a clue about other vile environments.
Some of the activist/quango “workplaces” are apparently pretty vile. The SNP itself seems a pretty unpleasant, backstabbing and dysfunctional organisation.
I find the idea that the SNP have improved the standard of conduct in the House of Commons utterly ludicrous ! But they don’t seem to do reality very well.
I’m sure she’s right. But did she make it better or worse ? I think we know the answer.
Cheerio, then!
She is the kind of person it would be very easy to dislike, but she is accurate about Westminster. On the debit side, a world made of her politics would be a disaster.
Stop press! Faecal matter complains about smell of back passage!
She always looked more than up for a ruck whenever I saw her on TV.
“I don’t regret spending any of the time what I’ve done” Wow! A few years in London and she has adopted Cockney syntax. (Though a cockney would be referring to a prison sentence.)
I recall her being surprisingly nice about Jacob Rees-Mogg.
Ye’ll no be missed, hen!
The greatest Mhairi Black moment came when she appeared in a sketch on the recently revived Tracey Ullman show. Perhaps it wasn’t her but the attitude and demeanour was spot on.
Ah, the pot calling the kettle black.
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