Vince Cable has said he will run for his old Twickenham seat if there is a snap general election called before 2020, after being deposed almost two years ago.

He said the local Liberal Democrat association chairman, Councillor Piers Allen, and group’s leader on the council, Councillor Gareth Roberts have said it is the understanding of the local members that he would be offered the chance to fight for his old seat if the opportunity arose.

Mr Cable said: “If Theresa May called an election in the near future over the Brexit issue I would stand.

“What happens in 2020 I don’t know. It’s a long time ahead and I have got lots on. I wouldn’t like to make commitments.

“The Government might have called an election if they got in legal or parliamentary trouble (over Brexit), but that’s looking less likely now.”

Richmond Park MP Sarah Olney landed it hot water with Liberal Democrat HQ this after telling TotalPolitics.com campaign chiefs “stopped treating her like a human being” during her successful by-election campaign in November.

Mrs Olney told the website: “There was a lot of central office input and for me, what I found was that they tended to treat me like a cardboard cut-out.

“I was the candidate, I got moved from place to place and sometimes they stopped treating me like a human being, which was a bit frustrating.

“It was like, ‘Sarah needs to do this, Sarah needs to do that, Sarah needs to do the other.’ I did call them up on it many times but they were just like ‘yeah, yeah, yeah’.

“It wasn’t terrible but it was just one or two times where they did things and I’d be like ‘What? What am I doing?’ And they’d say ‘you don’t need to know’.”

Mrs Olney told the Richmond & Twickenham Times she had simply answered the journalists question on what had been the worst part of the campaign.

She also said she was “getting on well” with her eight Lib Dem colleagues in the Commons, in particular Nick Clegg, after spending a lot of time with them during Brexit debates.

She said: “They have all been very helpful and friendly, because it’s a lot to take on when you first start. It’s been a very long two weeks with these debates – the other night I didn’t get home until 2.30am.”

Meanwhile Twickenham MP Tania Mathias refused to criticise the Government’s decision to only take on a fraction of the potential 3,000 child refugees under the “Dubs scheme”.

Ministers announced on Wednesday they would stop arrivals next month once the number of unaccompanied child refugees admitted to Britain had had reached 350 in March.

It was given the moniker the “Dubs scheme” or the “Dubs amendment” after Lord Dubs, a former child refugee and Labour peer who designed the amendment, which suggested the UK should accept up to 3,000 unaccompanied minors.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the Government did not want to “incentivise perilous journeys to Europe, particularly by the most vulnerable children".

Yvette Cooper, the chair of the home affairs select committee, called it “shameful” and Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, said he was “shocked”.

In a debate in Parliament yesterday, Dr Mathias said: “When we voted on the Dubs amendment, we never expected the scheme to close at all. Does she agree that Britain should be leading the way? There should be more resources for local authorities.”

Speaking to the Richmond & Twickenham Times, Dr Mathias maintained the Government’s line that the scheme was technically not closed, and that the Dubs scheme is just one part of the overall effort to supporting refugees.

She also called for more support to be given to local authorities to deal with the difficulties of housing refugees, and proposed the Government appoint a specialised minister for refugees.

She also lamented her colleagues in the House of Commons voted against the amendment which would guarantee EU nationals currently residing in the UK the right to stay after Brexit.

But Dr Mathias urged calm, saying it was “unlikely and unfeasible” that EU nationals would be forced the leave the UK.

She refused to suggest reasons why more than half of MPs voted against the amendment.

Since the referendum result the Twickenham MP has advocated for the guarantee that EU nationals will not be forced to leave the UK.

She said: “I have spoken to a lot of residents who are EU nationals, or married to one and they are worried day and night by the idea of having to leave.

“But I would say that it’s not likely at all – it just would not work. And our businesses rely on them.”