Jo Swinson

Jo Swinson MP
Baby of the House
Incumbent
Assumed office May 5, 2005
Preceded by	Sarah Teather
Member of Parliament for East Dunbartonshire
Incumbent
Assumed office May 5, 2005
Preceded by	new constituency
Majority	4,061 (8.7%)
Personal details
Born	(1980-02-05) February 5, 1980 Milngavie, Scotland
Nationality	British
Political party	Liberal Democrat
Alma mater	London School of Economics
Website	http://www.joswinson.org.uk/

Jo Swinson (born February 5, 1980) is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for East Dunbartonshire constituency, to the north of Glasgow in Scotland. From July 4, 2007 she has been the Liberal Democrats Shadow spokeswoman for Women and Equality, based in the Lib Dems' Department for Communities and Local Government. She was previously the Liberal Democrats' Shadow Scotland Secretary and has chaired the Liberal Democrats' Campaign for Gender Balance since 2004. As of 2008, she is the youngest MP in the House of Commons.

Personal

Swinson was raised in East Dunbartonshire and was educated at Douglas Academy in Milngavie and the London School of Economics, where she studied Management gaining a BSc in 2000. After graduating with a first class degree, she moved to Yorkshire and worked for Ace Visual & Sound Systems in Thorne, South Yorkshire from August 2000, then as Marketing and PR Manager for radio station Viking FM from December 2000.

Election

In 2001, Swinson stood as a Liberal Democrat for the Hull East constituency in the UK General Election, gaining a 6% swing from John Prescott, deputy leader of the Labour Party. In 2003, she unsuccessfully contested the Strathkelvin and Bearsden seat in the Scottish Parliamentary election, coming 3rd with 14% of the vote.

Swinson won her seat in the House of Commons at the 2005 general election, beating John Lyons of Labour by 4,061 votes to take East Dunbartonshire. She is currently the youngest MP in the House of Commons, (informally known as the "Baby of the House") replacing fellow Lib Dem MP Sarah Teather. She is the first ever Member of Parliament born in the 1980s.

Political views

She is vocal in her opposition to the Iraq War and the Labour government's proposals for national identity cards. Supports measures both by individuals and government to tackle climate change such as conserving energy in the home and the current Liberal Democrat policy of introducing green taxes while reducing income tax to offset the burden of this. She supports reducing the voting age to 16 as one way of engaging young people in politics. She believes more women should be involved in politics but that encouragement is better than coercion in achieving this. She opposes positive discrimination to address gender imbalance, and famously led the argument against Baroness Shirley Williams against positive discrimination to select of her party's candidates at their national party conference in 2002, wearing a T-shirt inscribed with the slogan, "I am not a token woman".

Swinson has also called for a "wellbeing index" to be introduced, to be compared against GDP, and tabled an early day motion on the issue in 2008, gaining 50 signatures. She found support from MPs such as Vince Cable and Angela Eagle (the motion was backed by members from across the political spectrum). Swinson cited the fact that although standard of living had increased, peoples' level of wellbeing had been virtually static for some time, according to polls.

She feels strongly that new prisons ought not to be built and has been campaigning vocally against the building of a new prison at Bishopbriggs which lies within her constituency. She has said that if a new prison does get built in Bishopbriggs it must not be built cheaply, and it must not be named after the town in which is to be sited.

Political career to date

(bold = current position)

• Spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs (2008- )
• Spokeswoman Minister for Women and Equality (2007-2008)
• Spokeswoman Department of Communities and Local Government (2007-2008)
• Spokeswoman Scottish Secretary (2006-2007)
• Spokeswoman Department of Culture, Media and Sport (2005-2006)
• Member of Parliament, East Dunbartonshire (2005- )
• Chair, Gender Balance Task Force (2004- )
• Scottish Parliamentary Candidate, Strathkelvin & Bearsden (2003)
• Honorary Vice President, Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (2002-2004)
• Westminster Parliamentary Candidate, Hull East (2001)
• Vice Chair (Campaigns), Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (2000-2001)
• Vice Chair, Liberal Democrat Youth and Students - job share with Ruth Polling (1999-2000)
• Secretary, Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (1998-1999)

External links

• Jo Swinson MP official site
• Jo Swinson MP profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
• Jo Swinson MP profile at the site of Scottish Liberal Democrats
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Jo Swinson MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Jo Swinson MP
• The Public Whip - Jo Swinson MP voting record
• BBC News - Jo Swinson profile March 30, 2006
• Open Directory Project - Jo Swinson directory category
• Politics on Demand - includes regular Podcasts by Jo Swinson
• WPRadio - Jo Swinson on Women's Parliamentary Radio