Sir Vince Cable may be about to fight his last election as leader but he is already plotting his comeback. Today, he vows to return to the frontline if there is a second referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union.

The 76-year-old, who is due to step down this summer, admits with a twinkle: “Oh yes, I would hope to play a big part in that.”

Until Cable, the oldest party leader since Sir Winston Churchill, steered the Liberal Democrats to the capture of 700 seats in this month’s council elections, his future looked as bleak as his party’s.

Then, suddenly, the Lib Dems emerged blinking from the shadow of the coalition years, declared “Bollocks to Brexit” and made the young pretenders at Change