WESTMINSTER can ignore the needs of Glasgow at its peril according to one of the city's new SNP MPs.

Natalie McGarry, Glasgow East MP, said the city's stereotypes and caricatures will be challenged and the city's problems highlighted.

Ms McGarry defeated Labour's Margaret Curran who she said worked "tirelessly" in her roles as MP and previously MSP.

In her maiden speech in the House of Commons she said the spirit of the red Clydesiders James Maxton, John Wheatley, Manny Shinwell and John MacLean lived on in the city and rent strike leader Mary Barbour continued to inspire women today.

Ms McGary said: "I know that for many of those whose understanding of Glasgow extends no further than lazy caricatures, there are stereotypes to be challenged. And challenged they will be."

She added: "I agree that Glasgow should be feared but not because of misconceptions, but because it is a city that throughout its history has held a mirror to all those who would dare to exploit it and its people.

"Glasgow's people represent a powerful but peaceful threat to all those who've complacently wielded power from this building for centuries. "

"This house ignores the needs and aspirations of the people of Glasgow at its peril."

Ms McGarry spoke during a debate on health and social care in her role as disabilities spokeswoman for the SNP at Westminster.

She said: "I represent a constituency that contains some of the worst, and some of the best, of Scotland and the United Kingdom. We should all collectively be ashamed of the poverty, inequality and low life expectancy that some of my constituents suffer, and have suffered for generations.

"All of us on these benches were elected on a platform to tackle inequality, to oppose austerity, to raise the standard of living. "

She said she would be putting the rights people with disabilities mental and at the forefront of her work.

Ms McGarry also said she wanted to see an end to the "abomination of the sanctions regime" on social security claimants.