21 facts about Mhairi Black as she turns 21

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Mhairi BlackImage source, Getty Images

Since May everyone's been talking about Mhairi Black after she became the youngest MP for 300 years, aged just 20.

She stunned Labour's Douglas Alexander by taking his seat in Paisley and Renfrewshire South for the SNP.

It had been a Labour stronghold for the previous 70 years.

Then she stunned everyone again with her maiden speech which got fellow MPs applauding (which they're not meant to do in the House of Commons).

Now it's another big moment for Mhairi as she turns 21 this weekend.

Image source, Getty Images

1. As a child Mhairi wanted to be an astronaut, a farmer, or a judge. The careers adviser weirdly never said: "Member of Parliament?"

2. Before she became an MP her last job was working in a chip shop.

3. She's a season ticket holder for Partick Thistle and was one of the first girls to play on her primary school football team.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

'Mon the Jags!

4. She is the youngest person elected to the House of Commons since 1667 when somehow a 13-year-old aristocrat called Christopher Monck was given the keys to power.

5. Her tender years means she gets the official nickname "Baby of the House".

Image source, Hulron Archive/Getty Images
Image caption,

This is what the House of Commons looked like in Christopher Monck's day. Not one of them covertly playing Candy Crush Saga

6. Mhairi plays the guitar and piano.

7. She loves "dad music" including Motown, U2, The Beatles, the Kinks and the Stone Roses. So if the career in politics doesn't work out, wedding disco DJ-ing awaits.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Stop in the name of no more austerity! Mhairi loves Motown stars The Supremes

8. Mhairi got a first in politics and public policy at Glasgow university. She was still a student during her election campaign, and even did some studying in the House of Commons library. Her last exam was actually after she was elected.

Image source, Getty Images

9. Her "enthusiastic" remarks on Twitter raised a few eyebrows in 2013 (her description of Celtic was a bit sweary).

10. She doesn't like maths (there was a sweary tweet about that too).

11. Her first speech in parliament was swiftly viewed 10 million times online. That's equivalent to every person in Scotland watching it... twice.

Image source, Thinkstock
Image caption,

Netflix? Rihanna videos? Naaaw, Mhairi!

12. When asked about her decision to "come out" as gay she replied: "I've never been in."

13. She was caught on camera after the Yes campaign's referendum defeat saying that she would like to "put the nut on" a Labour councillor. That's slang for a head butt, English people.

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

Mhairi in her trademark suit and blue shirt, refraining from nutting the mic

14. In the past she has volunteered for Oxfam and travelled around Scotland visiting deprived areas with the Margo Mobile campaign (named after veteran campaigner and Mhairi hero Margo MacDonald).

15. Did we mention Mhairi was young? She was born in 1994, the year Oasis released What's the Story (Morning Glory).

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

The Brit Awards looked like this when Mhairi was a bairn

16. Mhairi thinks many of the MPs she now mingles with in the Commons tea room are out of touch. She told The Times, external she found the rules weird: "You're not allowed to clap like an ordinary person, but you're allowed to bray like a donkey?"

17. Her mates though she was a "bit mental" in the run-up to the election. Who's laffin' now? (Not really, they also though her mission to get elected was "great".)

Media caption,

Mhairi Black spoke to Newsbeat in the run-up to the election

18. Black says she is "not religious but reads her Bible".

19. After Mhairi was elected she took her second visit to the House of Commons - her first was on a family trip as a teenager - and said: "It'll be a bit different this time."

Image source, Getty Images
Image caption,

This is the moment Mhairi found out she'd won her seat in the election

20. Mhairi admitted she spent some of her first MP's pay packet on "rounds for her mates and McDonald's". We hope they buy her a couple of birthday drinks and some fries in return.

SNP MP for Glasgow North East Anne McLaughlin tweeted this picture in May., external

21. And about those rumours she exists almost entire on junk food.. they're not true. She loves cooking and as a teenager asked for a pasta maker for her birthday.

Image source, Thinkstock
Image caption,

Mhairi loves real pasta. The Pot Noodle rumours were unfounded

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