We asked Chris Huhne, a former journalist, to write the beginning of his own interview. “That’s absolutely ridiculous!” he laughed, in mock horror. “I’m not going to write your piece for you.”

He would not fall for any of our tricks because he knows them all, and more: interviewing Mr Huhne is like circling an intense, watchful cat that seems perfectly friendly but is probably quite dangerous.

He had been so written off by the Establishment that this was his first newspaper interview of the leadership campaign, just as the ballot papers arrive on Liberal Democrat doorsteps. But in a few weeks everything had changed: Nick Clegg had faltered; Mr Huhne had seized his chance.

“My guess is that we’re still behind, but not as much as anyone thought at the beginning. We’re closing the gap. Undecideds are breaking more towards me than Nick.”

So why - on this, his second attempt at the leadership in two years - had he proved better at challenging the favourite?

While saying that he did not want to criticise Mr Clegg, Mr Huhne did not hesitate to remind us of his opponent’s weaknesses, over and over again. Such as . . .

“Age probably has a part. I’ve gone from being the youngest candidate last time to the oldest candidate this time. “ It had a bad effect initially, but the more people think about it they realise there are advantages to having kicked around . . . I have 13 years more outside experience than he does. Simple as that.”

What else?

“I do think people underestimated the advantages of having kicked around the journalistic course as long as I did, because I did lots and lots of telly and radio. I was doing it from about 1980. It doesn’t hold any terrors for me,” he said, his point being that Mr Clegg had underperformed on air.

So why did people talk about Mr Clegg as the more telegenic of the pair?

“Those are your words. You are one of the initiators of this myth, you tell me. I think he does have real talent.”

Such as?

“I’m happy to talk about me, and make positive remarks about me. You are trying to get me into trouble!”

Mr Huhne, you see, rarely gets into trouble. He makes trouble. When we put it to him that he was seen as harder-edged, the streetfighter to Mr Clegg’s nice guy, he did not demur.

“I spent 19 years as a journalist, where you need to have a certain mischievous streak to be successful.”

He also left Fleet Street to spend five years founding a business in the City - and making pots of money.

“And in order to set up a business and take on competitors, you have to be able to spot opportunies that they are missing, spot weaknesses they have got, that they haven’t noticed.”

Rare is the politician who plays up, rather than down, this side of his or her personality. But Mr Huhne believes that it is time for his party to fight a little harder, create more trouble. He had, he said, “picked up a few tricks”. “I was a hard news reporter, where you have to go to the newsdesk, you have to pitch the story, you have to get past the ‘so-what test’ with some of the most cynical people in the world, you have to find a space on the page, and that’s actually quite a useful talent in politics,” he said.

“It is always difficult for us as a party to get heard. You need to make sure you’re in the story.”

A great example of making sure you are in the story is “Calamity Clegg”, the title of an aggressive dossier produced from the Huhne camp.

It could have been a mistake by an overzealous volunteer, as Mr Huhne was quick to state, and apologise for. Or it could have been a brutally effective stunt that lingers in the public consciousness.

When we asked Mr Huhne for his policy differences, he unapologetically returned to the “flip-flopping” implied by Calamity Clegg. “I would say there is a difference, or has been a difference, on public services, and I’ve made my position very clear throughout and been very consistent.”

But although Mr Huhne is more strongly antiTrident, and more in fav-our of “equality” in society, he also owns seven houses, five of them rental investments. His three children and two stepchildren went to private and state schools. He said that he was not more of a Leftie than Mr Clegg. That was “old-fashioned politics”, based on a short postwar period when people voted according to wealth and class. “That period is over, we are back to a world of competeting ideas and values, much more exciting for anyone who is a liberal as we don’t have to compete on old tribal class interests.”

If he were to lose this time, he would get the message. “This is my last chance at leadership.”

But if he was not prepared to write his own introduction, he is certainly not ready to write his own exit. Yet.

Chris Huhne

Born July 1954

Education Westminster School, Sorbonne, Oxford

Journalism Liverpool Daily Post and Echo; The Economist; leader writer, The Guardian 1980-90; economics and City editor, The Independent and The Independent On Sunday, 1990-94

Other jobs Founder, Sovereign Ratings IBCA, 1994-97; managing director, then vice-chairman, Fitch IBCA, 1997-2003

European Politics MEP for the SouthEast of England, 1999-2005

British politics MP for Eastleigh since May 2005; environment spokesman since 2006

Family married to Vicky Pryce, a Greek-born economist and government adviser. Five children (including two stepchildren); lives in South London

Times Recommends

• What makes the perfect mum?
• To keep me stress-free, no more awareness days, please
• What do lottery winners buy?