Referring to their bird logo, Margaret Thatcher once described the Lib Dems as "a dead parrot"- referencing the famous Monty Python sketch (she herself had never seen it, thinking Monty Python was a person).

Either way after the 2015 election the Lib Dem bird was cooked. Reduced from 57 MPs to a paltry eight, they seemed to have reached the end of the political road.

Yet it seems that the EU referendum has, for some voters, absolved them of the sins of coalition and given the party renewed purpose.

After the 23 June both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn embraced leaving the EU pretty much wholesale lest UKIP continue to bite at the main parties' heels, taking votes from leave voters.

Image: Margaret Thatcher, pictured in 1979, once referred to the Lib Dems as a 'dead parrot'

But perhaps this was in part a miscalculation. For though there are signs both parties are losing votes - it's not Leavers to UKIP - but remainers to the Lib Dems.


As UKIP has withered so Tim Farron has centred the so-called "#LibDemFightBack" (catchy eh?) on being the voice of the Remain vote, those who either want a second referendum or a say on Theresa May's Brexit deal - something Labour has shied away from demanding.

Now in one sense you might think embracing a lost cause wouldn't be ideal for a political party. After all, a clear (albeit narrow) majority of the electorate voted for Leave.

Indeed if recent polls are to be believed an even clearer majority - consisting of both Leave and Remain voters - don't want to revisit the issue and want the Government to get on with it.

But under our First Past the Post electoral system, a political party doesn't need a majority of the electorate to succeed at the ballot box, simply an angry plurality.

Image: Tim Farron and newly-elected Lib Dem MP Sarah Olney speak on Richmond Green

If you want proof of that, just ask the SNP. They lost the 2014 referendum on Scottish independence by a clear 10 point margin.

Yet they went onto take 56 of the 59 Scottish seats at Westminster less than a year later.

Part of the reason for that was the realignment in Scottish politics. The referendum introduced a new dividing line north of the border, old party loyalties mattered less than the central question of whether you were in favour of independence or staying in the UK.

The traditional parties were all unionist and consequently split the 55% of the No vote between them. The SNP as the only independence party had the 45% vote to themselves and therefore triumphed in virtually every seat.

And so the Lib Dems hope something similar is happening across the UK and by having the Remain vote all to themselves they can break back through. It's a nice theory and evidence is building up that it's working.

The Lib Dems have been scoring some spectacular local council by-election wins. For example, In North East Derbyshire, a seat held by Labour in parliament since 1935, the Labour share of the vote went down by a whopping 32.2% with the Lib Dems up 37.4%. Swings like this have been commonplace in the last few months.

Image: Tim Farron has aligned the party with the views of Remainers

And if you think that's all a bit small beer then consider that the Lib Dems successfully retook Richmond in south west London overturning a Tory majority of over 20,000 votes in a by-election last year.

Likewise their average by-election swing in all of the parliamentary by-elections since Brexit has been 11%. They're predicted to gain around 100 seats in council elections next month.

So are we on the verge of yellow peril? Well up to a point, Lord Copper.The Lib Dems are only polling at around 11% nationally. In Scotland they're all but moribund. It's unlikely they would be in a position to return to anything like their parliamentary representation before 2015.

But there are enough places where they used to have strength - mainly Remainer strongholds - like south west London, Bath, Cambridge, where they may be able to muster enough angry Remainer discontent to mount a comeback.

That relies on Brexit being a live political issue by 2020, which is not guaranteed.

But in the meantime one of the reasons Theresa May is rumoured to be reluctant to hold an early general election is fear of the Lib Dems reversing Conservative gains against them in 2015 (on which the party's victory was largely based). I'm told the party is hopeful of wresting Cornwall and Somerset county councils from the Tories in the local elections.

For Labour, the big test will be the Manchester Gorton by-election in early May. Richmond showed the Lib Dems have corralled the issue against the Tories. If they can do the same against Labour in urban northern seats then the Lib Dem bird really will fly again.

Having been there this week my hunch is that whilst the party will return to second place, it won't be quite enough.

If, however, they can substantially eat into that enormous 24,000 Labour majority they will have shown themselves a real threat to both Labour and Conservatives less than two years after being declared all but extinct. Maybe in a few weeks time they will appear less dead parrot and more a Remainer phoenix.

:: Eleven candidates have now been confirmed to run in the Manchester Gorton by-election. They are: