The consensus is that Jo Swinson came off worst in the leaders debate. If so, she has only herself to blame. A quick thread...

She was dogged by the tuition fees issue. There is ample evidence - as Martin Lewis, the IFS, the IEA and others have often said - that “free” tuition fees are a perk for middle class high earners. She didn’t make that case.

Even if she wasn’t prepared to grasp that nettle, she could have pointed out that a party that comes third in an election doesn’t get everything it wants. If people wanted “free” tuition fees in 2010, they should have given her party a majority.

Then there was “austerity”. Sensible people understand that you can’t keep borrowing £100 billion a year. That is one reason the Tories won a majority in 2015. But she never mentioned the scale of the deficit inherited in 2010 or the need to cut it.

Someone in the audience said that the LDs’ policy of balancing the budget meant “permanent austerity”. An interesting definition of austerity, to say the least, but one held widely on the left. She didn’t challenge this ridiculous belief.

She didn’t even point out that you could increase public spending under this form of “austerity” by increasing tax revenue if you wanted.

In short, she came across as a lightweight who doesn’t believe in her own policies.