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With only eight MPs and languishing on just seven per cent in the polls, Lib Dem leader Tim Farron is bravely outlining the party's “fightback”.

Teeing up its spring conference, he has just posed for the obligatory photo opp in a pub, clutching a pint of freshly-poured ale.

But rather than being bitter about the voters' verdict last May, when the Lib Dems sunk from 56 Commons' seats in a devastating result that forced Nick Clegg to quit as party chief, he is optimistic.

While Labour has been having its existentialist crisis over Jeremy Corbyn 's leadership, and the Tories have been tearing themselves apart over Europe (again), the Lib Dems have been quietly trying to get over their defeat and rebuild their battered party.

Appropriately, they are having their conference in York, the city hit by devastating floods over the winter , and Mr Farron is sitting in the Walmgate Ale House where the waters of the River Ouse overwhelmed the bar earlier this year.

The “inspiring response” and “real resilience” to the emergency clearly affects him; Mr Farron's own constituency in Cumbria was also badly hit.

(Image: PA)

“If you want to draw an analogy between York and Kendal and the Liberal Democrats, I will take that,” he says.

“We suffered significant damage but those are the moments when you actually see what you're made of.

“People can shrink away and disappear, or you can decide to roll your sleeves up, and decide that what you build will be even better than the thing that got knocked down.”

He is honest about the chance handed to the Lib Dems by the EU referendum and Labour's internal woes.

“Community politics is our thing but we also look at the lie of the political landscape at the moment and think that we haven’t just got an opportunity, we have a duty given the situation in both parties,” he says.

“The Conservative Party is split from top to bottom but apparently invulnerable.

“It is invulnerable because whatever one thinks of Jeremy Corbyn – a perfectly nice guy – the Labour Party are the most ineffective, incapable opposition in living memory, and the Tories are getting away with murder.”

(Image: Matt Cardy)

Buoyant Mr Farron is feeling “great” and “very positive” eight months into the job, and points to a string of council by-election victories in recent months as evidence of the much-touted “Lib Dem Fightback”.

Pressing the flesh in York, he is in his element, the grassroots campaigner out on the campaign trail.

“There is a determination to rebuild our movement from the grassroots up, it's what we're good at,” he beams after pulling a pint of ale.

“There's a sense that in post-May last year , people are prepared to listen to us.

“Where Liberal Democrats put the running in and create the effort on the ground , it is making a big difference.”

The influx of new members following the disastrous defeat was “hugely uplifting” he says, praising their motivation.

“They are desperate to get out there and campaign and win,” says the party boss.

Town hall elections in May will be Mr Farron's first electoral test.

Sheffield and Leeds are two cities where the Lib Dems aim to make gains, and he believes Scotland is also ripe for the party to win seats.

But beneath the relentless optimism, there is a realism about the polls – and the Herculean task the Lib Dems face.

“Rebuilding a party that has been through ghe experience we have doesn't happen overnight,” he cautions.

(Image: PA)

“But there is a kind of energy out there where people are relishing the fightback.”

Predictably, he refuses to set targets for May's elections in English town halls and to the Welsh Assembly and Scottish Parliament.

“It's tough,” he admits.

“It's going to be a challenge but there are some real prospects for us to grow.”

And with that he is off to do what he does best: meet the people and try and win them over.