The Liberal Democrat leader has been accused of ‘airbrushing’ her part in the coalition government.
Jo Swinson, who took over from Vince Cable, served as a business minister when her party propped up David Cameron’s Tories.
The party has always insisted they reigned in some of the Tories’ biggest excesses.
But today she admitted she had regrets over her voting record during the years of coalition government, where she backed a series of austerity measures.
She told Sky’s Sophy Ridge: “There are cases where we fought and we lost, there are cases where we fought and won and of course we look back and we have to reflect and say yes, there are probably areas where I wish I’d done that differently because you are always making a judgement… I look back and of course there are things that I regret.”
Ms Swinson named a number of battles she says the Lib Dems won on gender pay gap reporting and clamping down on pay day lenders which she says the “Tories didn’t want to do”.
She also claimed that she “fought and lost” against introducing employment tribunal fees.
But at the time the then business minister told the House of Commons that fees could help claimants despite warnings from campaigners that they would deny claimants access to justice.
She said: “Fees will help claimants consider whether alternative forms of dispute resolution, such as the free conciliation service provided by ACAS, would be more appropriate for resolving their workplace disputes.”
The Ministry of Justice raked in £32m in employment tribunal charges over three years before judges ruled them to be unlawful in 2017.
Then Justice Secretary Chris Grayling claimed the charges would cut the number of malicious and weak cases.
Official figures show that between 2014 and 2017 there was a 79% fall in claims.
Today the Liberal Democrat leader she insisted her party had helped support poorer children in the 2010 government.
(Image: Getty Images)
She said: “There’s a lot of good that we did in coalition – helping children from the poorest backgrounds with more money in schools.”
But Angela Rayner MP, Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, hit back at the Tory-led coalition’s record on education.
Ms Rayner said: “Jo Swinson and the Liberal Democrats spent five years propping up a Tory-led government that slashed education funding, axed support for the poorest teenagers, cut FE funding year after year, tripled university fees, took thousands from teachers’ and staff pay, and cut the adult skills budget by a quarter.
“She can’t airbrush that record from history, and she is simply wrong to imply that they put more money in.
” Labour opposed these cuts and, in government, we will invest in our schools, our children and teachers, and transform our education system so it works for the many, not just a privileged few.”
