Supporters of the Liberal Democrats come out with several contradictory lines to justify their party’s record in government from 2010 to 2015: “We didn’t do it — we had to do it — it would have been worse if we hadn’t done it — we were right to do it — Labour would have done it anyway.”

It’s not surprising that the party struggles to explain away its record of complicity with the Tories as they laid waste to Britain’s social services and drove millions into poverty. Much better for the Lib Dems if that awkward history can be brushed under the carpet — and that’s what their single-minded focus on Brexit is meant to achieve.

But we shouldn’t indulge their pretense that the political slate was wiped clean in June 2016. The record of the Cameron–Clegg government is a much better guide to what we can expect from Jo Swinson’s party than her insincere rhetoric about Brexit.