The first time I interviewed Jo Swinson was in September 2013. I was working for a trade-style magazine called Total Politics, which was so neutral and unthreatening that even government ministers merrily opened up to the point of making unwise and rather too honest remarks.
Swinson, who was a business and women and equalities minister at the time, did no such thing. I remember leaving the interview frustrated at the lack of anything at all juicy for my piece. In particular, her opposition to all-women shortlists, the process by which Labour has increased its number of female MPs since 1997, sticks in my mind.
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