Mhairi, 20, Beat Labour Heavyweight

When the SNP's Mhairi Black takes her seat at Westminster, she will be the youngest MP to do so since the 17th century.

Published 8th May 2015

When the SNP's Mhairi Black takes her seat at Westminster, she will be the youngest MP to do so since the 17th century.

At 20, the politics student has defeated a Labour heavyweight - taking Paisley and Renfrewshire South from Douglas Alexander, who was first elected when she was just a toddler.

The Partick Thistle football fan, who is in her final year at Glasgow University, says she has always been politically motivated particularly for the pursuit of social justice''.

But she attracted attention early in her campaign when the SNP faced calls to sack her as a candidate in February after footage of her speaking at a pro-independence rally in October last year showed her labelling some of those who rejected independence as gullible'' andselfish''.

She later insisted she had changed her attitude towards No voters when she was challenged about the language she had used.

Ms Black also raised the hackles of Labour heavyweight Gordon Brown, who resurrected a video featuring the SNP candidate boasting that a sizeable bloc of MPs at Westminster will hand the SNP the power to twist their arm and to get that other referendum''.

Speaking in Elderslie, the former prime minister said: She says vote SNP, get SNP MPs at Westminster and we will twist their arms and get another referendum.''

He added: What they want is an SNP vote not to deliver social justice, but to deliver the chaos and constitutional crisis at Westminster to, as she said, force a second referendum.''

The SNP firmly denied Ms Black was agitating for another referendum, insisting that she was arguing for devolution of the right to hold another referendum at a time of Scotland's choosing, rather than requiring Westminster's permission.

Ms Black was also forced to discuss her Twitter history - which she has been using since she was 14 - after writing in unfavourable terms about how she hated'' Celtic.

In an interview this week, she admitted she wrote daft stuff'' on the site as a teenager.

As well as tidying up her Twitter account, she has also spoken about how she has had to smarten up'' her dress sense to represent a wide range of people.

She spent much of her campaign talking about getting rid of career politician'' Mr Alexander, saying she hated the idea of becoming an MP for a career.

She has clearly reached out to thousands of new voters.