The Weinstein stuff shows you that when you get this culture of untouchable power that you can’t ask questions of, it shows you what goes on behind the scenes. That’s exactly what we’ve got in Westminster, so the more we can chip away at that the better it is for everybody.

I’ve never been sexually assaulted or anything like that, but in terms of the sexism and the condescending attitudes, oh God yes.



The first week I was down, one of the first conversations I had with with one of the Tory old guard. I’d asked when the summer holidays were and he said ‘I think you’ll find it’s called recess darling’. And I said ‘No I think you’ll find I’m called Mhairi sweetheart’. So I had to have loads of run-ins like that, some of them a lot uglier than that.

Yesterday, I had the first I’ve had in ages, when someone I’m on a committee with walked by and he’s always very mannerly and said ‘It’s quite rich of you to have a go at Douglas Ross [Tory MP who skipped universal credit vote to referee] for not being here, when you’ve not been here’. And I said ‘There’s a difference between being unwell and being at a football match.’ Had I been a guy not a chance in hell he’s have said that to me, but that’s the world they live in.

There’s plenty of creeps in politics but I steer well clear of them. Quite often I see conversations where I’m going: ‘see if I was her I’d have lamped him by now’ because there are guys in that place that are totally self- entitled. It’s a power thing. Even the way they speak, their body language, is awful. During debates some guys only take interventions from guys.