General election 2019: Lib Dems leader Jo Swinson plans tour of UK to promote herself as ‘next prime minister’ Exclusive: The party is imposing greater central control on its election campaign in the weeks ahead

The leader of the Liberal Democrats, Jo Swinson, to launch a national election tour to convince voters she can become prime minister, i can reveal.

The party will put most of its resources into promoting Ms Swinson and increasing a centralised control of the campaign, in order to avoid a repeat of the last two general elections.

The Liberal Democrats are also planning to hire more office space in London to allow staff to oversee the campaign around the country. The decision to present Ms Swinson as a potential leader of the country has been dubbed a “bicep kissing strategy” because it shows off and potentially exaggerates the party’s strengths.

The i politics newsletter cut through the noise Email address is invalid Email address is invalid Thank you for subscribing! Sorry, there was a problem with your subscription.

The party’s new chief executive Mike Dixon has sent all employees an email, seen by i, which lays out its approach to the six-week general election campaign. It reveals the campaign will be heavily centralised, with candidates requiring sign-off from party bosses on all their leaflets and emails.

Daily summits

Workers will have to attend a meeting every morning, either in person or via the internet, to ensure they are on message.

The centrepiece of the campaign will be a “high-profile tour” by Ms Swinson, pushing the idea that she could end up running the country after 12 December. Mr Dixon told staff: “This is going to need all our events expertise while making sure each visit fits well with our overall communications and story.”

He added: “Our direct mail and digital communications to the public and members need to be tightly and closely co-ordinated with our data and polling as our spend increases… We need our candidates to have particularly close links with our field campaign.”

In the 2017 general election the party spent £6.8m – more than any other party except the Conservatives and Labour – picking up just four additional seats.

And the general election in 2015 was disastrous as the Lib Dems went from 57 to eight seats, following five years in coalition with the Tories.

He refuses to answer this question because the honest answer is that he wants to deliver Brexit. If you want to #StopBrexit, vote @LibDems. https://t.co/SKAUyLjovN — Jo Swinson (@joswinson) October 31, 2019

The Liberal Democrats are hoping to pick up the votes of Remainers who previously supported either the Conservatives or Labour but who now believe that priority is keeping Britain in the EU.

Ms Swinson tweeted: “The country deserves better than Brexit, and it deserves better than the two tired old parties. Vote @LibDems to #StopBrexit and build a brighter future.”