PA. 3/10 Anna Soubry - The Independent Group for Change. Leader of the Liberal Democrats lost her Dunbartonshire East seat in a 6.8% swing to the SNP. Jo Swinson has apologised to the Liberal Democrats for a dismal election in which she lost her seat and the party slipped to 11 MPs, but said she did not regret fighting on a … But elsewhere the Lib Dems were hampered by what seemed to be a lack of effective tactical voting, not least because in some seats it was not clear whether they or Labour were the better option for anti-Conservative locals.In a speech during which her voice broke with emotion several times, Swinson warned that racism “has now become mainstream” in politics. She said there were some "nuggets of gold" the party could take from the election, such as increasing its share of the vote by 4.2% and getting "some good new MPs".
Add yours to ours and be part of what comes next:Jo Swinson is the Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Liberal Democrat candidate for East Dunbartonshire. Jo Swinson has officially resigned as leader of the Lib Dems after suffering a disastrous election defeat. A former marketing manager, in 2015 Jo founded her own consulting business advising organisations on workplace diversity. Join us for that journey, let’s explore the way together, with hope in our hearts.”Similarly, in the Cities of London and Westminster seat, Umunna’s losing margin to the Conservatives, just under 4,000, was significantly less than the 11,000-plus won by Labour.After a buoyant autumn conference at which party insiders cited 80 seats as a likely minimum benchmark for an election, Swinson led the Lib Dems to their second-worst performance in the party’s 31-year modern history, better only than the slump from 57 to eight seats in 2015.The MP for Oxford West and Abingdon since 2017, and spokeswoman for education and for culture under Swinson, Moran seems a likely frontrunner. A leadership contest will be held in the new year. Jo Swinson has stepped down as Liberal Democrat leader with immediate effect after losing her seat on a grim election night that left her party with 11 MPs. She had been set to challenge for the leadership in the summer, after Vince Cable stepped down, but opted not to. She has written a book, Equal Power. As a daughter, sister, wife, and a mum to two small kids.”But in Kensington, where Gyimah had been touted by the Lib Dems as a likely winner, he came a fairly distant third, with his 9,000-plus votes contributing to Labour losing the seat by just 150 votes.Castigating what she said was the failure of the Conservatives and Labour to tackle racism in their ranks, Swinson said she was fearful for the future: “Our country is in the grip of populism, with nationalism resurgent in all its forms.”While the party had a significant gain in vote share on Thursday, up to 11.5% from the 7.4% in 2017, the new leader will face a postmortem into a campaign centred on courting remain-voting areas.Swinson stepped down immediately as party leader, a job she took in July, after losing her East Dunbartonshire constituency to the Scottish National party by 149 votes, a seat she had regained in 2017.A Lib Dem veteran – he has represented Kingston and Surbiton, in south-west London, since 1997 – Davey lost out to Swinson in the last leadership election and became deputy leader and Treasury spokesman.