Smaller parties matter in British politics. Just ask Nigel Farage. With no Ukip MPs at Westminster and his own stint as an MEP terminating without reprieve in 2019, he was still the grinning, beer-swilling, Union-Jack-sock-wearing face of Brexit on the day the prime minister sent her notice to quit to Brussels.

Or ask the Liberal Democrats. They got all the way to full partnership in the coalition government — but were then smothered by the Conservatives, mislaid their identity as a party of protest and lost 49 of their 57 seats in the 2015 general election.

Even after Sarah Olney won the Richmond Park by-election last December to become the Lib Dems’ ninth MP, that is a very low base. The old joke about the