Eclectic SNP members arrive at Westminister

Fifty-six jubilant MPs from the Scottish National party arrived in Westminster on Monday, led by Nicola Sturgeon and including a 20-year-old university student, a man with a ponytail and a very relaxed-looking Alex Salmond.

The eclectic group of new members will take the Liberal Democrats' former offices in Westminster, having become the third-largest party in the Commons.

Spirits were high as the party's MPs jostled for position in the Westminster sunshine outside the Commons for a group photograph, watched by cheering SNP supporters, one of whom waved a giant Saltire.

While some of the new MPs confessed they did not know how to find their way round the building, Mr Salmond, the former leader and an MP until 2010, greeted old friends and talked to journalists in the corridors.

Mr Salmond joked about what jobs he might do in the new parliament, suggesting he could become head of the intelligence committee, or even the Commons speaker.

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Mr Salmond said: "It's a bit of a pity that Labour couldn't win any seats but we'll just have to move on to Plan B, as they say."

Asked about his possible role chairing a cross-party committee, he added: "My experience of select committees is that they take about six months to set up. Ask me in six months' time." But he insisted Angus Robertson, the leader of the party in Westminster, would remain in charge of the group.

Asked whether he had any views on who should lead the Labour party, Mr Salmond said: "No, none whatsoever. I don't recognise most of them."

But referring to Labour's leader in Scotland, who lost his seat at the election, Mr Salmond added: "I want Jim Murphy to stay, if that's any hint."

Meanwhile Mhairi Black, the 20-year-old who beat Douglas Alexander, the former Labour MP, in Paisley, was seen off at the airport by her father.

Despite being the youngest MP since 1667, she cut a confident figure as she told reporters she would "of course" finish her studies. The politics student is due to take her final exams at Glasgow university this year.

And Chris Law, sporting a tartan tie and tweed suit, became the first male MP to sport a ponytail in living memory. Mr Law spent the referendum campaign last year touring the country handing out pro-independence literature, representing many of the party's new supporters who were galvanised by last September's vote.

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