Quotes from Jo Swinson

I loved reading. I was one of those kids who was supposed to go to bed but had a torch under the duvet. That love of reading stayed with me.

As Minister for Women and Equalities, I introduced shared parental leave, extended flexible working rights and won government support to bring in gender pay gap reporting. I'm not going to lie: it was a constant battle.

It's very hard for politicians to ignore even just a handful of letters about the same issue.

I respect everyone's right to their own religious beliefs, but for me, this cannot extend to our education system treating some people's lives and identities as if they are somehow less worthy of respect or love.

Research shows that when children have no body confidence at school they're less likely to put their hand up in class and ask a question.

Since signing up to Think Act Report, the majority of members are taking more action and publishing more information on gender equality.

If you're going for an interview, you will dress smartly and look the part, that is absolutely fine, but it's just the level to which this becomes the ultimate focus of everything, where you have people who won't go to school unless they've put their make-up on, or won't leave the house unless they've spent two hours getting ready.

We need to transform the economy so it works for people and the planet.

I want to lead the Liberal Democrats so that we can build a liberal movement to stand up to those nationalist forces and stop Brexit, then transform our broken economy so that it is focused on the long-term and works for both people and our planet, tackling poverty and averting climate crisis.

A book I often refer to by Naomi Klein is called 'No Is Not Enough'. It's not enough to be against something. You have to actually be for something. A better alternative. For me, that's about transformation.

Do I want more women elected to Parliament? Absolutely. I devote significant amounts of time to getting more women in that situation.

With parenting, like any other skill in life, practice makes perfect.

Much of political decision-making concentrates power in the hands of those already inside the circle, who tend to be men. Excluding women may not be the intention, but when they are not invited into the room where decisions are made, you can see how it happens.

Boris Johnson has only ever cared about Boris Johnson.

I'm perhaps not the most tribal of politicians. Working in a mature and adult way where you recognise what your shared goal is and you manage to work towards that... that is not something which I think would be particularly more difficult with Labour than it is with the Conservatives.

My five years' experience working in small businesses and a multi-national company have helped me as an MP to understand the challenges that businesses face, however the bottom line is that it's up to constituents to judge whether you are good enough to do the job.

I knock on lots of doors, but you don't reach everyone that way - Twitter is just one of many ways of keeping in touch.

I was elected to Westminster when I was 25; I was Britain's youngest MP.

One of the initiatives I have pursued in Parliament has been to make it easier for the public to see what their MPs do in the House of Commons by removing the ban on Parliamentary filming appearing on YouTube or similar web sites.

Our country deserves a party that isn't afraid to say immigration is a good thing, or to say that Donald Trump is racist, or to admit that we have an economic system that is fundamentally broken for too many people and is breaking our planet too.

Politics now is fractured. The rising tide of nationalism and populism threatens to consume our politics. Whether it is Trump or Putin abroad, or Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage at home, our political order is increasingly dominated by forces that seek to divide us.

I know as an aunt, you fall into the trap of turning to your niece and saying, 'you look beautiful' - because of course all children do look beautiful - but if the message they get is that is what's important and that is what gets praise, then that's not necessarily the most positive message you want them to hear.

So when your sister or your friend is standing there and moaning about whether she looks really fat, and actually she looks gorgeous, tell her so and support each other.

People in Scotland want to have Scotland in the UK and the UK in the EU, and that's what the Liberal Democrats are arguing for.