Mhairi Black, 20 years and 238 days old, has become
Britain's youngest Member of Parliament since 1667 after defeating Labour's
shadow foreign secretary, Douglas Alexander by 6,000 votes in yesterday's
election. Mhairi is a University of Glasgow student studying Politics and
represented the Scottish Nationalist Party.
She was up against one of the best-known Labour MPs
left in Scotland, Douglas Alexander, who was defending a majority of more
than 16,000. He was not only shadow foreign secretary but had lots of election
experience in abundance, enough to secure him the job of Labour’s UK campaign
coordinator.
Some of her obstacles were self-inflicted, resurrected
comments on social media – such as her expression of hatred for Celtic football
club, normally the kiss of death for candidates in the west of Scotland,
potentially alienating a large slice of the electorate from the outset.
None of it mattered. The 20-year-old University of
Glasgow student won anyway, riding the SNP surge that has engulfed Scotland,
comfortably overturning Alexander’s majority with more than 23,000 votes.
“The fact is that people have woken up to the fact that
Westminster has not been serving them and the Labour party has not
been serving them,” she said.
She gave a gracious victory speech, praising her
predecessor warmly. “While I appreciate that this is a blow from Douglas
Alexander, I truly hope he will remain to see his future in politics once he
has recovered from this result,” she said.
Congrats to her.
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