The House of Commons’s youngest MP has revealed that her last job before toppling Douglas Alexander to win her seat was at a chip shop.
Scottish nationalist Mhairi Black, 20, who is studying politics, still has one exam to go but insists she will throw herself into her new role after that.
She told ITV’s Lorraine: “It was hectic because I was studying – I had a really bizarre moment because I finally had time just to sit and (be) quiet in the library that is in the Commons, and I was sitting going, ‘I’m studying for a politics exam in the House of Commons library’. It’s nuts but it’s good.
“Things have almost been timed to perfection because I’ve got one exam left and then that’s me done (with) uni and then we can start throwing ourselves into it and start delivering things.”
Ms Black said she comes from a politically interested family, but it was not until last year’s independence referendum that she and her father started to go out and get actively involved.
It made people think differently about political issues, she went on, adding: “You start to understand that ordinary folk probably know more about life and what’s needing to be done than half the people in Parliament.”
The Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP said some people had been patronising towards her because of her age.
But she added: “One of the things that we’ve constantly argued is the problem with Westminster, it has become a boys’ club and it has become out of touch and it’s filled with people who are quite often self interested rather than interested in people.
“So Parliament should be reflecting ordinary folk and it should have a wide variety of people in it and I think it’s great that we’re kind of seeing that happening.”
On being intimidated when sitting in the Commons, she said: “When you’re sitting there across the room from people who are wanting to potentially put another million folk in poverty, you’re thinking, ‘I’m not the one who should be worried, it’s you, you’re the ones that need to answer for things, you’re the ones that are forcing people to struggle’.”
She said if she can look at her home town in five years and say it is a better place, then she will know she has done something right.