- Jo Swinson
Infobox MP
honorific-prefix =
name = Jo Swinson
honorific-suffix =
MP
office =Baby of the House
predecessor =Sarah Teather
successor = Incumbent
term_start =5 May 2005
term_end =
constituency_MP2 = East Dunbartonshire
parliament2 =
majority2 = 4,061 (8.7%)
term_start2 =5 May 2005
term_end2 =
predecessor2 = "new constituency"
successor2 =Incumbent
birth_date = Birth date and age|1980|02|5|df=yes
birth_place =Milngavie ,Scotland
death_date =
death_place =
nationality = British
spouse =
party = Liberal Democrat
relations =
children =
residence =
alma_mater =London School of Economics
occupation =
profession =
religion =
website = http://www.joswinson.org.uk/
footnotes =Jo Swinson (born
5 February 1980 ) is the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for East Dunbartonshire constituency, to the north ofGlasgow inScotland . From4 July 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' ShadowScotland Secretary and has chaired the Liberal Democrats' [http://www.genderbalance.org.uk/ Campaign for Gender Balance] since 2004. As of2008 , she is the youngest MP in the House of Commons.Personal
Swinson was raised in
East Dunbartonshire and was educated atDouglas Academy inMilngavie and theLondon School of Economics , where she studiedManagement gaining a BSc in 2000. After graduating with afirst class degree , she moved toYorkshire and worked for [http://www.showmagic.com Ace Visual & Sound Systems] inThorne ,South Yorkshire from August 2000, then asMarketing andPR Manager for radio stationViking 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 theScottish Parliament ary 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 MPSarah 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 tackleclimate change such asconserving energy in the home and the current Liberal Democrat policy of introducinggreen taxes while reducingincome tax to offset the burden of this. She supports reducing thevoting 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 opposespositive discrimination to address gender imbalance, and famously led the argument against BaronessShirley Williams against positive discrimination to select of her party's candidates at their nationalparty 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 anearly day motion on the issue in 2008, gaining 50 signatures. She found support from MPs such asVince Cable andAngela Eagle (the motion was backed by members from across the political spectrum). Swinson cited the fact that althoughstandard of living had increased, peoples' level of wellbeing had been virtually static for some time, according to polls. [citeweb|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7657465.stm|title=Crunch time for happy talk|author=Brian Wheeler|publisher=BBC Sport |date=2008-10-11|accessdate=2008-10-11]Political career to date
(bold = current position)
* Spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs (2008- )
* SpokeswomanMinister for Women and Equality (2007-2008)
* SpokeswomanDepartment of Communities and Local Government (2007-2008)
* SpokeswomanScottish Secretary (2006-2007)
* SpokeswomanDepartment of Culture, Media and Sport (2005-2006)
* Member of Parliament, East Dunbartonshire (2005- )
* Chair, Gender Balance Task Force (2004- )
*Scottish Parliament ary 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 withRuth Polling (1999-2000)
* Secretary, Liberal Democrat Youth and Students (1998-1999)References
External links
* [http://www.joswinson.org.uk/ Jo Swinson MP] official site
* [http://www.libdems.org.uk/people/jo-swinson Jo Swinson MP] profile at the site of Liberal Democrats
* [http://www.scotlibdems.org.uk/biographies/swinsonj.htm Jo Swinson MP] profile at the site of Scottish Liberal Democrats
* [http://politics.guardian.co.uk/person/0,,-6756,00.html Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Jo Swinson MP]
* [http://www.theyworkforyou.com/mp/jo_swinson/dunbartonshire_east TheyWorkForYou.com - Jo Swinson MP]
* [http://www.publicwhip.org.uk/mp.php?mpn=Jo_Swinson&mpc=East+Dunbartonshire The Public Whip - Jo Swinson MP] voting record
* [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/mpdb/html/686.stm BBC News - Jo Swinson] profile30 March ,2006
* [http://www.dmoz.org/Regional/Europe/United_Kingdom/Scotland/Society_and_Culture/Politics/Parties/Liberal_Democrats/MPs/Swinson,_Jo/ Open Directory Project - Jo Swinson] directory category
* [http://www.politicsondemand.co.uk/ Politics on Demand] - includes regular Podcasts by Jo Swinson
* [http://www.wpradio.co.uk/mp3s/JoSwinson.mp3 WPRadio] - Jo Swinson onWomen's Parliamentary Radio
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