AT the age of 32 the new SNP MP for Glasgow Central Alison Thewliss is already a seasoned politician having served for eight years as a councillor on Glasgow City Council.

Born in Carluke, she joined the party at 17 and went on to study politics and international relations at Aberdeen University, before working for the former West of Scotland MSP Bruce McFee in Holyrood.

“I really enjoyed the case work when working for Bruce and helping people with their problems, and when the opportunity to get elected to the council came up I went for it,” she said.

Thewliss later became a member of the council’s executive committee, and was the party’s spokeswoman for land and environmental services when she was in the council. She is now on the SNP’s Treasury team at Westminster, as well as sitting on the Local Government Select Committee and is the SNP Spokesperson on Cities.

“I joined the SNP at high school as their vision of fairness appealed to me.

My inspirations were people like Margo MacDonald, Winnie Ewing and Alex Salmond who were putting the case so well of what sort of Scotland we could have.

“They wanted a fairer Scotland, a fairer society and that chimed with me and still does. They were asking the questions – ‘why do people in Scotland die younger and have poorer health?’ I wanted to be part of the move to change that,” she said.

Thewliss has found her first few months as a MP exciting, but admits to not liking the pomp and ceremony of the House of Commons, and would prefer to see a more modern approach being taken to parliamentary business such as the one adopted in the Scottish Parliament.

She is vowing to change the more archaic traditions in the Commons and has already suggested that breastfeeding should be allowed in the chamber, noting she had previously been welcomed when feeding her children in council meetings and at a football game.

“I had never been in the Houses of Parliament building before and it is strange to witness all the pomp and circumstance.

I find all the formality around the building is quite strange – particularly when you have worked in the Scottish Parliament where serious work goes on but in a more informal setting. Westminster seems very far away from ordinary people a lot of the time.”

Thewliss has two young children, Alexander, five, and Kirsty, 20 months, who live in Glasgow, with her husband who is taking up most of the child care responsibilities with help from her family.

Thewliss said she misses her children considerably during the week and would like to see more parent-friendly practices adopted in Westminster, which she says would not only benefit MPs but also Commons staff who work in the building.

“Many things are frowned upon here. There are certain areas where only members can go. It certainly doesn’t feel a very family-friendly sort of place,” she said.

“My colleagues in the SNP and I are hoping to change some of the practices to make the Commons more family friendly.”