Mhairi Black, the new 20-year-old MP for Paisley

Most final ­year students spend this time of year frantically searching for a graduate job ­ but the 20 ­year-­old Politics and Public Policy Student at the University of Glasgow has just made history by becoming the youngest ever MP to be elected to the Westminster Parliament.

Newly-elected SNP member of parliament, Mhairi Black, Britain's youngest member of parliament since 1667, speaks after the declaration of the general election results for the constituency of Paisley and Renfrewshire South. Picture: Getty

Black, the SNP candidate for Paisley & Renfrewshire South, has gathered quite a following since she took an active role in campaigning for the Yes side in the Scottish independence referendum.

As well as becoming a key public speaker at the time, she was involved in the Margo Mobile, which reached out to some of Scotland’s most deprived communities before the the referendum.

The Paisley native says she has always been politically ­motivated and took part in protests from a young age, including the anti­ Iraq War marches in 2005.

Mhairi Black consoles Labour candidate Douglas Alexander. Picture: Getty

The young woman “an opportunity for real change” and she is now the first under­21 to be elected since the minimum age for candidates was lowered in 2006.

She says she will join the fight against poverty campaigning against austerity cuts and benefit sanctions. She is also against further spending on nuclear weapons.

Apart from politics, she is a keen Partick Thistle fan and was one of the first girls to play on her primary school football team in Paisley.