U.K. Liberal Democrats Elect Jo Swinson as First Female Leader

(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. Liberal Democrats elected Jo Swinson leader as the party bids to capitalize on a surge in the polls driven by opposition to Brexit among pro-European voters.

The selection of Swinson, 39, marks a generational shift in the Liberal Democrats as she takes over from 76-year-old Vince Cable to become the party’s first female leader. The party’s deputy leader since 2017, she defeated former Energy Secretary Ed Davey in a ballot of members by 47,997 votes to 28,021.

The Liberal Democrats have campaigned for a second referendum on Brexit ever since the first in 2016, arguing that voters should have a say on whatever deal the U.K. reaches with Brussels. That stance has seen them gain ground on both the main opposition Labour Party and the ruling Conservatives in Remain-leaning areas. In May’s European Parliament elections, the Liberal Democrats beat both main parties, securing 20% of the vote and trailing only Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party.

“Liberalism is alive and thriving in the face of nationalism, populism, the catastrophe of Brexit,” Swinson said on Monday in her victory speech in London. “The two old parties have failed. Our party has been clear on Brexit from day one. We believe the U.K.’s best future is as members of the European Union, and that’s why, as your leader, I will do whatever it takes to stop Brexit.”

Swinson won back her Dumbartonshire East seat in 2017, two years after losing it to the Scottish National Party. She’d previously held it since 2005. She was a junior minister for two-and-a-half years when the Liberal Democrats were in a coalition government with the Conservatives from 2010 to 2015.

She will have to build the party up from a base of just 12 members of Parliament, down from a high of 62 in 2005. The Liberal Democrats were punished by voters in the 2015 general election following their coalition with the Tories, winning just 8 seats before rebounding slightly two years later. On Monday, Swinson urged members of other parties to work with the Liberal Democrats to oppose Brexit and populists.

“We need to work with others, in whatever form or shape, to keep growing that liberal movement, that force we need in British politics to take on nationalism and populism,” she said. “This is the time for working together, not the time for tribalism.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tim Ross at tross54@bloomberg.net, Thomas Penny, Stuart Biggs

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