Mhairi Black criticises Westminster's outdated traditions

Mhairi Black, the UK’s youngest MP, has spoken out about Westminster’s outdated traditions, saying it must decide whether it is a museum or a functional parliament.

The 20-year-old SNP MP said politicians were out of touch with the real world. “You just hear folk talking so much guff,” she said. “You just think, ‘you’ve not got a clue’.”

In an interview with the Times, Black said that parliamentary rules and conventions were stupid and senseless. “So you’re not allowed to clap like an ordinary person, but you’re allowed to bray like a donkey? I mean, see PMQs, especially the Conservative side, they’ve got this weird noise they do. It actually sounds like a drunken mob.”

She said that making MPs vote in person, rather than electronically, was outdated and wasted time. “Are we genuinely saying that the underground can log millions of travellers, day in, day out, without a problem, and 650 of us can’t hit a button? It’s just stupid. A couple of Mondays ago, I didn’t get home until half past midnight because we were voting. How is anybody with a family supposed to work those hours?”

Black’s maiden speech earlier this month went viral online and has been watched more than 10 million times.

In the passionate Commons speech, she attacked George Osborne’s cuts to housing benefit for young people and called for Labour to work with the SNP to mount an effective opposition to the Conservatives.

Coming straight to Westminster from university in Glasgow, she admitted having frustrations with the environment in the Palace of Westminster – including the “clammy” building and the noise from Big Ben’s chimes.

Speaking about her friends in Scotland, she said: “It’s fair to say I’ve got the most bizarre job out of them all. My pal texted me the other day because his PS3 connection stopped working and he’s like: ‘Get on the phone to BT.’”

She also claimed that young people will always struggle to be fairly represented in parliament: “No matter what they vote, they would be outvoted anyway. You still end up with middle-class, middle-aged guys who make your decisions for you, and there’s not a lot of difference between either side of the chamber.”