Chuka Umunna is not a stupid man. So I hope that at first light yesterday, as the news of Thursday’s local government elections came in on his bedside radio, he pulled the duvet a little more snugly over his ears to muffle what he must surely now hear as a rebuke. He badly underestimated the Lib Dems. They are not going to go away.

Because if there are two things these results scream, it’s that a clear majority against leaving the European Union is emerging but that unless Remain-leaning political parties can swallow their pride and work together to turn that majority into actual election results, we shall be divided, ruled and pushed aside.

Mr Umunna and the new party of which he’s a leading