Jo Swinson was ridiculed for daring to suggest she could win against a man, and it sums up everything wrong with our political patriarchy, writes James Millar.
Three years ago, Jo Swinson was trying to persuade the nation that she could be the first Liberal prime minister in a century. Three weeks later, she wasn’t even an MP.
The inevitable end to an ill-judged election campaign, according to conventional wisdom in Westminster.
And, yet, from this distance, it is clear that she was, in fact, the best candidate to be prime minister, of those mathematically in the running to be so.
She was up against Jeremy Corbyn, who, Keir Starmer told media this week, isn’t even fit to run for Labour at the next election.
Her other opponent was Boris Johnson. Not only do we all know how that turned out, plenty of people – including scores of Tory MPs – knew how that was going to turn out.
The vote in 2019 was very much the Brexit election, and Swinson geared the Lib Dem campaign on that basis. But, it was more than just Brexit at play in the way she was ridiculed and demeaned for daring to suggest she could beat two incompetent and inappropriate male candidates.
Women are constantly undermined in politics
Recent events have revealed very plainly the misogyny that undermines young(ish) women in politics.
Last week, the leaders of Finland and New Zealand – bit part players on the world stage – held a summit in Auckland. Yet, the meeting attracted attention because Finnish PM Sanna Marin is one of the world’s youngest leaders, at 37, and Jacinda Ardern is just five years older – the same age as Swinson – and a dopey kiwi journalist asked if, essentially, they were just meeting because they are women of a similar age.
Watch NZ Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern pick apart this reporter's question during a joint press conference with Finnish PM Sanna Marin. He asked the pair 'are you two meeting because you're similar in age and got a lot of common stuff there?'
Read more: https://t.co/eTtJEqJoFZ pic.twitter.com/UBEZs1kzvF— SBS News (@SBSNews) November 30, 2022
What was remarkable was not that Ardern dismissed him with typical acuity, but that the male correspondent who asked the question was not ridiculed and cancelled.
And, when UK Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner was videoed performing a DJ set at a charity fundraiser over the weekend, commentators were quick to suggest she is “unserious”.
Marin faced similar criticism when she was pictured at a party with friends. On that occasion, woman leaders from around the globe, including Hillary Clinton, posted pictures of themselves dancing to show support.
Time to smash the political patriarchy
The double standard is striking. Marin and Rayner were doing nothing a normal person ought not to do. Boris Johnson was nicked by the police for holding a party in breach of his own Covid rules, yet still has lapdogs in the media, sentries in the Conservative parliamentary party, and supporters across the nation at large.
We are now closer to the next election than the last one. Swinson seems unlikely to stand, but she’s unfinished business against the political patriarchy that undid her last time round.
Whatever party one supports, in the name of better, more equal and fairer politics, her return to the Commons would be welcome.
James Millar is a political commentator, author and a former Westminster correspondent for The Sunday Post
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