Thirteen months ago, Neil Woodford was dramatically sacked from overseeing his former flagship fund — a move which culminated in the curtain falling on the career of Britain's most renowned stock picker.

However, it has now emerged that Hargreaves Lansdown, the FTSE-listed investment platform which championed Woodford after he launched his own venture in 2014, hatched a plan with Aberdeen Standard Investments to prevent his ailing Equity Income fund from being wound up and assets being sold at firesale prices.