Meet the relatives

* Ed Fordham, the Lib Dems candidate's right-hand man in Stoke Central, on his blog 9th February 2017: "The simple truth is no-one knows what the result is, nor where the candidates will come, nor the number of votes cast."

* Chris Lovell, the Lib Dems campaign manager, in The Observer newspaper 12th February 2017: "From our data, I’d be relatively confident that Ukip aren’t going to win." The journalist adds: "Local activists believe that if Labour wins, they can beat Ukip into third."

"Relatively..."