“Disco Queen” Jo Swinson was the Lib Dems’ superstar DJ in 2015 and 2016 – but will not be bidding to reclaim her title.
Instead she will be preparing for an early-morning TV interview in Bournemouth, where she hosts her party’s conference for the first time as leader.
The fun-loving Lib Dems hold a disco on the Saturday evening of their annual seaside get-together, with senior party figures often spinning the discs as they vie for the crown of top DJ.
(Image: Philip Coburn)
But Ms Swinson dashed activists’ hopes she would take another turn on the decks.
Confirming her “disco queen days” were over, she said: “I can’t DJ at the disco, I’m doing Andrew Marr on Sunday morning!
“But I did win the disco competition for two years.”
Reflecting on her voter-enforced exile from the Commons between 2015-17 she added: “Maybe the rule is that I only did that when I wasn’t an MP.”
(Image: PA)
Some 21 years after she first attended a Lib Dem conference, she admitted to nerves ahead of her debut as party boss.
“You wouldn’t really be a human being if you didn’t get nervous before you made a big speech,” she confessed.
“The sense of occasion often helps you do a good job. But I’m really looking forward to it, I relish it.”
