Former leader of the Liberal Democrats Vince Cable became the party’s leader after being re-elected as the Twickenham MP in the 2017 snap election, after losing his seat briefly in 2015. Before this, Cable held his position as MP for Twickenham since 1997.
Before entering politics, Cable studied Economics at Cambridge University. Over the course of his life, he has served as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills during the coalition government from 2010 to 2015. Some of his initiatives still remain in place today including supporting innovation in industry, some of the work on trade and improving the skills apprenticeship system. He is currently a visiting professor at the LSE (London School of Economics). And he’s even made an appearance on Strictly Come Dancing!
We began by talking with Cable about his economics background, and asking him how he first got involved in politics.
“It sort of began here in York actually,” he explained, “because I lived here and my father was quite political, he was very right-wing and so we used to argue. I…[had several] angry debates with my dad over dinner.
“I started reading books in the library about the things we were talking about. Then I went to the University of Cambridge and I got heavily involved in University politics. I was President of the Cambridge Union and then I lived in Kenya for some years and came back to live in Glasgow with my wife and young children. That’s when I really got involved politically, it was part of local campaigning.
“I was a member of the Labour Party and got involved in the campaigning around closing shipyards, bad housing and apartheid and I got elected to the City Council in Glasgow.”
“I was hoping to run one of Britain’s big cities in my 20s. That’s where I started.”
Vince Cable
“I actually stood for parliament for the first time in Glasgow in 1970. The problem is I was a bit of an outsider. I was quite happy in the Labour Party but then we had the Civil War 1980-81. The Labour Party split, one group went to the SDP (Social Democratic Party) who merged with the Liberals and I was one of them. So when that happened I stood as a candidate in York twice in the 80s.
Vince moved to Twickenham and in 1997 won Twickenham. Cable went on to be an MP there for 20 years. But before entering politics, he studied economics at the University of Cambridge.
“When I went into Parliament, I had a reasonably good grounding in economics.
“If you know a little bit and nobody else knows anything, you get a certain credibility. So I became quite famous, notorious during the financial crisis and I knew a little bit of economic history and that helped you make sense of what was going on.”
It was then that Cable became Business Secretary in the Cabinet. We asked him, given his experience in this role, what his reaction was to Rachel Reeves’ budget.
“They [the changes] were necessary: it was necessary to have a substantial increase in taxation because public services are in a very poor state. I think people have to get used to the idea that if they want good public services, they have to pay for them. That means taxation. So, yes, I agree with that.
“I think the big negative thing, which is not about the budget itself, but the preparations. I think the Labour Party made a bad mistake in opposition, not being honest about the need to raise taxation substantially. And they should have said to people that you’re going to have to pay more VAT, more income tax.
“But as a result of not doing that, what they’ve got into looks a bit sneaky, and they’ve got into bad taxes. This national insurance for employers looks like a victimless tax but it’s actually going to hit consumers, it’s going to hit workers indirectly. It’s not the best way to raise taxation.”
As we talk more about the Budget, we come to the topic of tuition fees.
“The simple headline is that tuition fees are good policy, but bad politics.”
Vince Cable
They were introduced by the Labour Party when they were in government because they realised it was the only way to finance universities. British universities are generally highly regarded for high quality, and if you’ve got to finance research as well as teaching, you’ve got to have some income, and the government can’t just underwrite it when you’ve got pressures from other sectors, defence, health…so it had to come from students! And the way it was done, which I think most students today understand it, is that it’s not actually fees. It’s basically a supplementary income tax.”
“Maybe it should be different. Low interest rates, I think would be sensible. The threshold is now too low so a lot of quite low-paid graduates are paying back student debt. But the principal is right, and the government, I think, had no choice, and particularly as we had that drop off in overseas students, universities are in a desperate financial position.”
Keir Stamer’s popularity has shifted a lot since being elected Prime Minister. I asked Cable what he thinks Starmer is doing well on and where he is falling short.
“The thing he dealt with very well was the riots that happened a few days after he became Prime Minister. I think that they made a big mistake..in not being honest about taxation, which they are now having to pay for. In terms of big picture stuff, I think they’ve been a bit weak in not doing more to rebuild our relations with the European Union.”
The conversation then turned towards whether Cable has any personal regrets from his time in government.
“In terms of economic policy, I wish I had won my argument with George Osborne about having more borrowing to invest, which is actually what Racheal Reeves has now done ten years later. So that was a matter of regret.”
We moved on to discuss the future of the Liberal Democrats.
“I think we should be a bit more outspoken about the need for rebuilding bridges with Europe, particularly now we’ve got Trump as president”
“We’ve got two priorities, one of which is to defend our existing seats, and that’s coming down to good constituency work, plus producing some kind of results on the campaigning issues the Lib Dems have pushed, which are carers and river pollution. The next step is to start making inroads into some of the big cities in the UK. People have now largely forgotten that the Lib Dems used to run Liverpool, Newcastle, Oldham, Sheffield, Cardiff, Bristol, and we’ve got to get back to that role as a constructive critic of Labour because if we don’t, the seats will go to Reform.”
When asked about what the Liberal Democrats should do to become the official Opposition in Parliament, Cable was eager to stress the importance of Europe, local government and climate change.
“I think they need to be a bit more explicit about Europe and the commitment to Europe. I would be much more outspoken in saying Britain needs to have higher taxes for better public services, and I think particularly areas like education.
“I think the Lib Dems should be… pushing very hard to get more funding into local government rather than central government, because…councils are closer to the public. At the moment, they’re disempowered, and many of them are bankrupt, so I think reforming local government would be a high priority.”
“And given that the Green Party is…not very prominent. I think it’s very much down to the Lib Dems to campaign on climate change.”
Cable went into detail on the new budget, speaking about how there has been no increase in petrol duties, but also that the day before it was announced that there would be an increase in bus and rail fares.
“For an environmentally minded government that shouldn’t be happening,” he told us, “the Lib Dems should be making waves on that kind of issue.”
The Lib Dems are known for their strong support for electoral reform. But given the rise of Reform UK we asked Cable if he has reconsidered his position given that proportional representation will also benefit Reform.
“We do need electoral reform. The fact that you get more people from Reform is neither here nor there. They exist as a force. We’ve seen with Trump, we’ve seen in Germany that populist parties are very, by definition, very popular. Just sweeping them under a carpet and pretending that they don’t exist is the worst kind of response. You’ve got to let them be represented in Parliament proportionately and then take the moment in terms of argument, not trying to suppress them.”
To wrap up the interview, we asked Cable for the proudest moment in his career.
“I think probably getting married twice,” he exclaimed smiling, “Both happy marriages, I think, I think that probably counts for more than public life.”