Westminster is a club masquerading as a parliament, says MP

SNP’s Mhairi Black launches attack on UK institution

SNP MP Mhairi Black has delivered another scathing critique of Westminster, describing it is a club “masquerading itself” as a parliament.

The Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP, who has been a staunch opponent of the UK Parliament’s rules and traditions since her election in 2015, said it was a “defunct” institution.

Ms Black made the comments during an event at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe which covered a wide range of topics, from her views on Brexit, to online abuse and her own experiences as a young gay woman.

She told host Graham Spiers that while she enjoyed helping her constituents, she did not enjoy the other side of the job “and the crap that comes with it”.

“I think Westminster itself as an institution is founded upon all the bits of being an MP I don’t like,” she said.

“It does not serve us, and in actual fact I would go so far as to say it’s not even a parliament – it is a club that masquerades itself.

“It is designed in such a way that people are not held to account, it is designed in such a way that you can bleat and complain and vote against things, and it doesn’t make a blind bit of difference.

“It is designed in such a way that you will fall at every hurdle.

“It is as difficult as it possibly can be to get any change.”

She continued: “As an institution it is defunct, it is not fit for purpose.”

Alongside her views on Westminster, Ms Black also voiced criticism of her fellow MPs, whom she once described in an interview as “sociopaths”.

“Politics attracts quite often the worst of humanity,” she said.

“It attracts people who are power hungry, who have all kinds of hidden agendas.

“So, if you’ve got all of them in this institution that the public doesn’t understand, that the public assumes is too complicated for them, and they can legitimately get away with wasting hundreds of pounds under the guise of protocol and tradition, then of course they’re going to do that.”

Asked about rumours she could quit Westminster, she said she did not know whether she would stand for re-election.

Picture: PA. Mhairi Black also voiced criticism of her fellow MPs.