Jo Swinson: 'I'm a genuine contender for Prime Minister'

9 November 2019, 18:33 | Updated: 9 November 2019, 18:34

The Leader of the Liberal Democrats told Clive Bull that voters have the choice of a Liberal Democrat government with her as Prime Minister.

Jo Swinson spoke to Clive Bull about the Liberal Democrats pledge to provide every child aged two to four with 35 hours of free childcare for 48 weeks of the year, which they said would be extended to children aged between nine and 24 months where their parents are in work.

He asked: "You seem to be ruling out working with various parties. How can you make any of this happen without a coalition or an arrangement of some kind?"

Swinson replied: "We know that Liberal Democrats are now competitors in hundreds of seats across the country because the fundamental fault lines of politics have shifted. So, I'm standing in the election as the Liberal Democrat candidate to be Prime Minister.

"Frankly, I look at Boris Johnson and Jeremy Corbyn and I'm confident I could do a better job than either of them. And there's a choice that people have to make at this election, people do get to choose.

And a choice on offer is a Liberal Democrat government, not led by Jeremy Corbyn, not led by Boris Johnson, but having me as Prime Minister able to implement our bold and ambitious plans for the future, whether that's from childcare or mental health provision, tackling the climate emergency that we face."

Jo Swinson was then asked about taking legal action against ITV and the BBC for excluding her from leaders debates.

She said that they were "certainly taking legal action" and that it was not a debate - rather it is "two chaps chatting about how we're going to leave the European Union."

Clive Bull asked if she was a "genuine contender for PM" and she said "absolutely".