Sillars: Black wasted her 'exceptional' political talents

The Herald Scotland

26-07-2025

"Mhairi is a great waste of talent. She has bogged herself down in identity politics when our society is calling for people of talent to address much bigger problems," said Mr Sillars.
"We have no housing available for the homeless. We have problems in the National Health Service. We have significant problems at every stage of education, from kindergarten to university.
"Some of her talent should have concentrated on these big issues. And I deeply regret how she has marginalised herself in the political arena."
READ MORE:
Mr Sillars campaigned around Scotland ahead of the independence referendum in September 2014 with Ms Black in the "Margo Mobile", a van named after his late wife the former MSP and MP Margo MacDonald.
"I can claim to have discovered Mhairi Black" he said.
"At a meeting in Glasgow in 2014 I spoke at two young women spoke before me. Both were good, one was exceptional.
"Afterwards I asked to get her telephone number and asked her if she would like to join the Margo Mobile. From the meeting, I went to STV to do an interview and told the producer that I had just met a young woman called Mhairi Black - remember that name."
He continued: "She was and still is someone with exceptional talent, the kind of talent that we require in Scottish politics today."
Jim Sillars wih Dennis Canavan, Alex Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon, Colin Fox and Patrick Harvie, ahead of the independence referendum in 2014 (Image: Gordon Terris) Mr Sillars said he and Ms Black kept in touch after the independence referendum and when she became an MP.
Speaking to [[The Herald]] ahead of her upcoming show at the Edinburgh Fringe, Ms Black told interviewer Teddy Jamieson that she had ended her membership of the [[[[SNP]]]] in recent weeks because she was unhappy with the direction the party had taken.
'Basically, for a long time I've not agreed with quite a few decisions that have been made,' she said. '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.
'To be honest, I'm looking around thinking, 'There are better organisations that I could be giving a membership to than this one that I don't feel has been making the right decisions for quite some time.''
Mhairi Black pictured this week in The Herald offices (Image: Colin Mearns) Ms Black singled out what she described as 'the capitulation on LGBT rights, trans rights in particular,' as an issue for her. 'I thought the party could be doing better about Palestine as well,' she added.
'So it was just a culmination of these things.'
Going forward, she said she would seek to support organisations such as the Good Law Project which has directly campaigned on issues such as climate crisis and trans rights by mounting legal challenges.
'That's what I want to throw my money behind,' she added.
In 2015 Ms Black was elected as MP for Paisley and Renfrewshire South, beating Labour's Douglas Alexander, then Shadow Foreign Secretary, in the process.
She was only 20 when she was elected to the Commons, making her the youngest MP since the 1832 Reform Act.
Her maiden speech was watched 10 million times online. But her time in parliament also saw her receive death threats. At times she struggled with anxiety and depression and was forced to take time off from working in parliament at the end of 2017. She was also diagnosed with ADHD during her time as an MP.
After successfully defending her seat in the 2017 and 2019 elections, Ms Black announced that she would not be seeking re-election in 2023. Last August - just weeks after the General Election which saw Labour return to power - she performed a Fringe show entitled Politics Is Not For Me, in which she explained why she believed Westminster was a dysfunctional institution and not fit for purpose.
Scottish Labour Deputy Leader Jackie Baillie said: 'Mhairi Black was the future of the [[SNP]] once, but now she has chosen a new direction.
'That is, of course, the choice that Scots across the country will have at the Scottish Parliament election next year by voting to remove the SNP after almost two decades in power.
'The truth is that the SNP is a busted flush, with no vision, no ideas, and no strategy.
'From our NHS to our schools to our housing system, the SNP is responsible for so much of what is broken in our country.
'Anas Sarwar and [[Scottish Labour]] will work tirelessly to demonstrate that things can be better with a [[Scottish Labour]] government.'
A spokeswoman for the [[SNP]] said: 'The [[SNP]] is the largest political party in Scotland, united under John Swinney's vision of creating a better, fairer Scotland for everyone.
'After a year of disappointment and let downs from the UK Labour government, it's clear that real change will never come from Westminster and that independence is essential for a better future.'
One observer added: "I understand that the SNP party rules say that if somebody publicly resign from the party then they cannot be readmitted for at least two years and then only with the permission of The national executive committee."
It is understood Ms Black informing The Herald that she is no longer a member of the SNP is not a 'public resignation'.
Ms Black declined to comment.