GLASGOW'S striking homelessness caseworkers have been sent a message of support from the House of Commons.

Anne McLaughlin, MP for Glasgow North East, made the comments during her maiden speech in Parliament yesterday.

The MP, who knocked Labour’s Willie Bain out of Westminster after winning her seat in May, spoke about her grandfather being a founding member of the SNP group in Greenock and said: “I know he would want me to send a message of support to day to the 70 striking homelessness caseworkers in Glasgow City council now in their 16th week.”

During the speech, Ms McLaughlin also condemned the Tory budget, and likened George Osborne’s plans and rhetoric to that of Margaret Thatcher.

The MP, who grew up in Greenock before moving to Glasgow, said her teenage years were difficult enough “without having to witness your town and its world class industries fall apart at the seams.”

She added: “I will never forget the feeling of powerlessness, the fear my friends felt, the despair of their parents.

“And I remember hearing rhetoric from politicians about people not wanting to work, about unemployment being a ‘lifestyle choice’, something disgracefully repeated in this house last week by the Chancellor in his attempts to justify his attacks on working people who have nothing.”

Ms McLaughlin also said she was concerned about the effects the “Sink or swim” budget would have on the people of Glasgow North East, and said: “ I will never adjust to hearing members cheer on a Chancellor as he announces taking away the life lines of many of my constituents.

“Sink or swim - that was the message from last week’s budget.

“I thought about my constituents watching from home, about family members and friends I care deeply about. I imagined their pain and I struggled to hold back the tears knowing that I was powerless to help them.”

She thanked her predecessor Willie Bain, her family and joked about the strange rules and regulations in Westminster.

She also joked about never wanting to become a politician, instead dreaming of the green benches in Coronation Street and her ambitions of becoming an actor, during her first speech in the House.