Former MP Mhairi Black announces she has left the SNP

Former SNP MP Mhairi Black has left the party – predominantly over its stance on trans rights and Palestine, the BBC understands.

Black, who was formerly the SNP’s deputy leader at Westminster, said there had been “too many times” when she did not agree with decisions made by the party.

Speaking to The Herald newspaper, she said the SNP had “capitulated” on issues important to her

“Basically, for a long time, I’ve not agreed with quite a few decisions that have been made,” she said.

Black was catapulted into the political limelight when she was elected to Westminster at the age of 20 and became the youngest MP since 1832.

She stood down ahead of the general election last year, citing safety concerns, social media abuse and unsociable hours.

She was elected as the MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, ousting the former Labour cabinet secretary Douglas Alexander, with her victory there coming as the SNP captured all but three of the seats in Scotland in the 2015 general election.

It was first national election since the Scottish independence referendum in 2014.

Speaking to BBC Scotland’s Scotcast earlier this year, Ms Black said she was “99.9%” sure that she would not try and become an MSP at Holyrood, insisting that she was “done with party politics”.

She criticised a number of decisions the SNP had made in recent years, and said that she was not happy with Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes’s prominent position in the party.

She revealed that she would have “probably left [politics] sooner” if Ms Forbes, who has more socially conservative views and has supported women’s rights to single-sex spaces, had become SNP leader.

Ms Forbes was not a supporter of the Scottish government’s attempt to introduce new gender recognition legislation – passed by MSPs in December 2022 but blocked by the UK government – which would have allowed anyone to change their legally-recognised sex.

Ms Black announced her departure from the SNP ahead of her show “Work in Progress” at the Edinburgh Fringe.

“There have just been too many times when I’ve thought, ‘I don’t agree with what you’ve done there’ or the decision or strategy that has been arrived at,” she said in the Herald interview.

Black said she was “still just as pro-independence,” but claimed the party’s “capitulation on LGBT rights, trans rights in particular” had been an issue for her.

She added: “I thought the party could be doing better about Palestine as well.”

The former MP said: “If anything, I’m probably a bit more left wing than I have been. I don’t think I have changed all that much. I feel like the party needs to change a lot more.”

Black was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during her time at Westminster, saying previously that the condition was picked up after she became unwell with “burn-out” during her time as an MP.

An SNP spokesperson said the party was “united under John Swinney’s vision of creating a better, fairer Scotland”.

Mhairi Black was once one of the SNP’s rising stars – and her announcement today marks the end of an eventful journey with the party.

She rocketed to victory in 2015 – the 20-year-old student beating a big beast of Labour.

In the still flourishing early days of social media, her maiden speech in the Commons was a barn-storming success.

She was the youngest MP since 1832 – a time when the parliamentary system had been tightened up and professionalised.

Her constituents liked what they saw and she was re-elected in 2017 and 2019 – but it was not a happy time.

Ms Black has spoken openly about her dislike of the “toxic environment” at Westminster and her deep mental health struggles.

Her departure from politics last year was not a surprise – nor perhaps her decision to quit the SNP today.

The indications were strong back in March already – when she told the BBC’s Scotcast that she’d be open to joining a different political party in the future.

Back then, she said she was still an SNP member “at the minute”.

Trans rights and Palestine seem to have been the particular triggers to end her association with the party.

Her announcement today paves the way for her treading the boards at the Edinburgh Fringe next month with her one-woman show.

The former MP has had an usual political career – her passion was sparked by the independence referendum and it has flared out earlier than some would have hoped.

However, her time in the SNP was impactful – and what more can a political party hope for?