About Jo Swinson

Jo Swinson was elected MP for East Dunbartonshire in May 2005, beating the sitting Labour MP by 4061 votes. She is a member of the Environmental Audit Select Committee and is currently Lib Dem Minister for Foreign Affairs, having previously held portfolios on equality, Scotland and the arts. At 27, Jo is the youngest MP in the House of Commons.

Winning East Dunbartonshire was third time lucky for Jo, having stood for Parliament twice before. In 2001 she achieved a 6% swing to the Lib Dems as the candidate against the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in Hull East. Jo also stood for the Scottish Parliament in Strathkelvin & Bearsden in 2003, increasing the Lib Dem vote by 4%.

Jo was brought up in East Dunbartonshire, where she attended Douglas Academy in Milngavie. She graduated from the London School of Economics in 2000 with a First Class Honours degree in Management. Jo then worked in Yorkshire as Marketing & PR Manager for the Emap radio station Viking FM (www.vikingfm.co.uk), where she project-managed a 5 day radio event that received a Sony Radio Academy Award nomination. In 2002 Jo moved back to East Dunbartonshire and to take up the post of Marketing Manager for Glasgow-based media business SpaceandPeople (www.spaceandpeople.com). In her time there she helped the company win Best E-Business at the Scottish Winners at the Web Awards 2003, and set up the Live Brand Experience Association trade body.

An active member of the Liberal Democrats since 1997, Jo was Secretary and then Vice Chair of the Liberal Democrat Youth & Students and launched the campaign website www.scraptuitionfees.com. Since 2003 she has been a Vice Chair of the Party's Gender Balance Task Force (GBTF www.gbtf.org.uk), having summed up a key conference amendment in 2001 which rejected all women shortlists for candidate selection, and set up the GBTF.

Outside politics, Jo likes going to the gym, reading, hiking, and salsa dancing.