JO Swinson is the new leader of the Liberal Democrat party after the conclusion of its leadership contest.

Ms Swinson, 39, was a business minister in the coalition government and was the bookmakers' favourite for the job after serving as deputy to Vince Cable for the last two years.

She collected more than 50 per cent of the votes as she beat former cabinet minister Sir Ed Davey in the final vote.

Kingston and Surbiton MP Sir Ed served as energy secretary in the coalition government under David Cameron.

Before being named leader, Ms Swinson took to Twitter, paying tribute to outgoing leader Vince Cable:

"Before we find out who will lead @LibDems next, I want to thank @vincecable for all that he has done as our Leader over the last two years.

"He has been the voice of reason in unreasonable times & led our party to our best ever local and European election results.

"Thank you, Vince."

The party currently has 12 MPs following Chuka Umunna's decision to join last month and came second in the European elections, winning 20 per cent of the vote share.