When Conservative Party members selected Boris Johnson as their prime minister, they were looking nervously over their shoulders at the success of Nigel Farage's Brexit Party.
Who better to unite "leavers" than one of the architects of Brexit? Who better to beat Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn than the man who won two mayoral races in Labour-leaning London? They certainly were not thinking about Jo Swinson and her Liberal Democrat party. Perhaps they should now.
Swinson became party leader last week after a landslide victory against a more experienced former minister, Ed Davey. At 39, she may be a borderline millennial, but she is no neophyte. She contested a seat for Parliament at just 21, lost twice before finally becoming the first Lib Dem to win her seat of East Dunbartonshire in Scotland in 2005. At 25, she was the youngest member of the House of Commons.