The youngest MP in the Commons, the SNP’s Mhairi Black, launched a blistering attack on the Conservative Government in her maiden speech while delivering a damning assessment of Labour’s direction of travel.
The new MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South received rousing applause from her own party in the chamber as she sat down after telling members that “I feel it is the Labour Party that left me, not the other way about”.
Ms Black, 20, said speeches from Labour MPs she had witnessed so far demonstrated “how deep the lack of understanding about Scotland is within the Labour Party”, adding the SNP triumphed on a “wave of hope”.
She said her comments were intended to “hold a mirror to the face of a party that seems to have forgotten the very people they are supposed to represent”.
Britain, she said, now had “one of the most uncaring, uncompromising and out of touch governments that the UK has seen since Thatcher”.
Ms Black said she had “very deliberately stayed quiet” and listened intently to Commons debate for the last ten weeks.
She said: “I have heard multiple speeches from Labour benches standing to talk about the worrying rise of nationalism in Scotland, when in actual fact all these speeches have served to do is to demonstrate how deep the lack of understanding about Scotland is within the Labour Party.
“I like so many SNP members come from a traditional socialist Labour family, and I have never been quiet in my assertion that I feel it is the Labour Party that left me, not the other way about.”
She added: “The SNP did not triumph on a wave of nationalism, in fact nationalism has nothing to do with what’s happened in Scotland. We triumphed on a wave of hope, hope that there was something different, something better to the Thatcherite neo-liberal policies that are produced from this chamber.”
“Hope that representatives genuinely could give a voice to those who don’t have one.”
She went on: “I don’t mention this in order to pour salt into wounds which I am sure are very open and very sore for many members, on these benches both politically and personally, colleagues, possibly friends lost their seats. I mention it in order to hold a mirror to the face of a party that seems to have forgotten the very people they are supposed to represent, the very things they are supposed to fight for.”
Ms Black said that after hearing acting Labour leader Harriet Harman’s intention to support the changes to tax credits, she wanted to make a plea, through the words of her “personal hero” the late Labour politician Tony Benn, who she said was “right when he said the only people worth remembering in politics were signposts”.
She said: “No matter how much I may wish it the SNP is not the sole opposition to this Government, but nor is the Labour Party. It is together with all the parties on these benches that we must form an opposition and in order to be effective we must oppose not abstain.
“So I reach out a genuine hand of friendship which I can only hope will be taken. Let us come together, let us be that opposition, let us be that signpost of a better society. Ultimately people are needing a voice, people are needing help, let’s give them it.”