Mhairi Black: '˜I'll batter whoever is in government'

Ms Black, the youngest MP at Westminster in the last parliament, had her majority over Labour cut from about 6,000 to about 2,500, however she still emerged victorious in a closely-fought race with Labour’s Alison Dowling.

Ms Black also described austerity as “ineffective” and vowed to fight cost-cutting measures at Westminster, adding: “It’s not benefiting people’s lives whatsoever.”

She denied rumours she had become disillusioned with the House of Commons, insisting rumours of her standing down were “grossly over-exaggerated.” She said: “If anybody was to be told they have a job for another five years, potentially, that’s good news.

“When I signed up to be the representative for this area, I meant it.

“And although I make no secret of the fact that I find Westminster a cake, I still think that so long as it’s our political institute we have to get involved in it.”

“So I’m glad to be re-elected again to go back down and continue to batter in to whoever’s in government, to tell them that austerity is not working, it’s not benefiting people’s lives whatsoever.

“The people it is benefiting are the ones who you could argue need it the least.”

She also refused to rule out the Nationalists forming a “progressive alliance” with Labour, claiming that significant portions of the party’s manifesto is “almost exactly copied” from the SNP.

She said: “Quite a lot of Labour’s manifesto was almost exactly copied from the SNP’s Scottish Government manifesto. We’ve been very consistent that we’d be prepared to work with anyone in terms of a progressive alliance. We’d be more likely to find that with Jeremy Corbyn than with Theresa May.”