Vince Cable

Early life and education

Cable was born in York, to a working-class Conservative supporting family. His father, Len, was a craftsman for Rowntree, and his mother, Edith, packed chocolates for Terry's. Cable attended Nunthorpe Grammar School. He then attended Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he initially studied Natural Sciences and later switched to Economics. He was the President of the Cambridge Union in 1965. He was also a committee member and later President-elect of the Cambridge University Liberal Club, but he resigned from the Liberal Party before taking up the office of President.

In 1966, at the end of his studies at the University of Cambridge, Cable was appointed as an Overseas Development Institute Fellow (ODI Nuffield Fellow) working in Kenya.

He graduated in 1973 with a PhD degree in Economics from the University of Glasgow on economic integration and industrialisation.

Economics career

Cable lectured for a time at the University of Glasgow and was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Global Governance at the London School of Economics, for a three-year period until 2004. In 2016, Cable was made Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Nottingham.

From 1966 to 1968, he was a Treasury Finance Officer to the Kenyan Government.

In 1969, he visited Central America, researching the recently formed Central American Common Market.

From the early to mid-1970s, Cable served as First Secretary under Hugh Carless in the Latin American department of the Foreign Office. He was involved in a CBI trade mission to South America at this time, engaging in six months of commercial diplomacy.

In the late-1970s, he was special adviser to John Smith when the latter was Trade Secretary. He was an adviser to the UK Government and then to the Commonwealth Secretary-General Shridath "Sonny" Ramphal in the 1970s and 1980s.

Cable served in an official capacity at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting of 1983 in Delhi, witnessing "private sessions at first hand" involving Indira Gandhi, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Lee Kuan Yew, and Bob Hawke among others. He was also present at the summits of 1985, 1987, and 1989.

In the same period, he contributed to the Brandt Commission, the Palme Commission, and the UN's Brundtland Commission.

From the 1980s onwards, Cable authored and co-wrote numerous publications in favour of globalisation, free trade, and economic integration such as Protectionism and Industrial Decline,The Commerce of Culture, and Developing with Foreign Investment.

Cable worked for the oil company Royal Dutch Shell from 1990 to 1997, serving as its Chief Economist between 1995 and 1997. His role at Shell came under scrutiny as the company was accused of playing a role in a turbulent era of Nigerian politics during the dictatorship of General Sani Abacha.

In 2017, Cable became a strategic advisor on the World Trade Board for the annual World Trade Symposium co-organised by Misys and FT Live.

Early years

At university, Cable was a member of the Liberal Party but then joined the Labour Party in 1966. In 1970, he contested Glasgow Hillhead for Labour, but failed to unseat the sitting Conservative MP, Tam Galbraith. Cable later became a Glasgow Councillor, and in 1979, he sought the Labour Party nomination for Hampstead, losing to Ken Livingstone; who was unsuccessful in taking the seat.

In February 1982, he defected to the recently created Social Democratic Party (SDP). He was the SDP-Liberal Alliance parliamentary candidate for his home city of York in both the 1983 and 1987 general elections. Following the 1988 merger of the SDP and the Liberal Party, he finished in second place at the 1992 general election to Conservative MP Toby Jessel in the Twickenham constituency, by 5,711 votes.

Member of Parliament (1997–2015)

Cable entered the House of Commons after defeating sitting Conservative MP Toby Jessel in the Twickenham constituency in his second attempt, at the 1997 general election. He subsequently increased his majority at the elections of 2001, 2005 and increased still further in 2010. He lost his seat in 2015, but regained at in the snap election in 2017.

In 2004, Cable contributed to the economically liberal Orange Book. However, he has described himself as being a social democrat, as well as an "open markets" liberal, and stated his desire to reconcile "economic liberalism with wider moral values and social justice".

Following the Orange Book, he was one of several Lib Dem MPs that oversaw the party's shift to the right with the adoption of a more free market approach. In 2005, as Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor, he suggested the possibility of the party dropping its commitment to a 50p top rate of income tax, supported exempting people on low income from income tax completely, and explored the possibility of a flat tax. In June 2005, he told The Independent that there was no future for the Liberal Democrats to the left of New Labour. He was critical of what he considered the Labour government's slow response to cutting government waste, later accusing Labour of allowing a "writhing nest" of quangos to develop.

Prior to the 2005 Liberal Democrat party conference, Cable did not rule out the possibility that the Lib Dems might form a coalition government with the Conservatives in the event of a hung parliament at the forthcoming general election. However, party leader Charles Kennedy said that the Lib Dems would remain an "independent political force".

In late-2005 or early-2006, Cable presented Charles Kennedy a letter signed by eleven out of the twenty-three frontbenchers, including himself, expressing a lack of confidence in Kennedy's leadership of the Liberal Democrats. On 5 January 2006, because of pressure from his frontbench team and an ITN News report documenting his alcoholism, Charles Kennedy announced a leadership election in which he pledged to stand for re-election. However, he resigned on 7 January. Cable passed on the opportunity to run for the party leadership himself, instead supporting Sir Menzies Campbell's candidacy.

Expenses

A Twickenham resident, Cable commuted by train into Central London daily and so claimed the "London Supplement" instead of the Additional Costs Allowance. However, the Daily Telegraph reported in May 2009 that he had been unaware that he was entitled to the London Supplement and so in 2004 wrote to the Fees Office to ask if he could receive retrospective payments for 2002–03 and 2003–04. The Fees Office refused the request, informing Cable that these accounts were already closed.

When overall MP allowances are ranked, Cable came in 568th for 2007–08 (out of 645 MPs). The Daily Telegraph also noted that he did not take a recent 2.33% salary rise.

Deputy Leadership of the Liberal Democrats (2006–2010)

Cable won plaudits for his repeated warnings and campaigns on the high level of personal debt in Britain. His was a significant voice of criticism during the Northern Rock crisis, calling for the nationalisation of the bank, capitalising on the claimed indecisiveness of both the Labour Government and Conservative Opposition on the issue.

In May 2010, Cable declared his resignation as Deputy Leader to dedicate more time to his Cabinet role as Business Secretary. His responsibilities and authority were somewhat reduced when it was revealed in December 2010 that he had boasted to Daily Telegraph reporters posing as constituents of his "nuclear option" to bring the government down by his resignation. Still worse, he claimed to the reporters that he had "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation despite having the responsibility to impartially arbitrate on the News Corporation bid to acquire the remaining 60.9% of BSkyB it did not already own. Amid cries for his resignation or sacking, all his responsibilities concerning the bid were removed. Cable did not resign.

Following the earlier example of Ann Widdecombe, Cable appeared as a contestant on the BBC's Christmas 2010 Strictly Come Dancing contest but failed to win.

Acting leader of the Liberal Democrats (2007)

With the resignation of Sir Menzies Campbell as Party Leader on 15 October 2007, Cable being Deputy Leader automatically succeeded him as Party Leader pending a leadership election. Asked on Channel 4 News that day by Jon Snow whether he would be a candidate for the leadership, he refused to rule himself in or out at such an early stage, but a few days later; Cable did rule himself out.

Cable received significant acclaim during his tenure as Acting Party Leader, with particular praise for his strong performances at Prime Minister's Questions. He was popular in the party and media for his attacks on the government's record over Northern Rock, HMRC's loss of 25,000,000 individuals' child benefit data and the party funding scandal surrounding David Abrahams' secret donations to the Labour Party. The latter attracted for Cable positive media attention for a joke at PMQs describing Gordon Brown's "remarkable transformation in the last few weeks from Stalin to Mr Bean, creating chaos out of order rather than order out of chaos", called by The Economist, "the single best line of Gordon Brown's premiership".

Views on the financial crisis

Cable is credited by some with prescience of the global financial crisis of 2007–2010. In November 2003, Cable asked Gordon Brown, then-Chancellor, "Is not the brutal truth that ... the growth of the British economy is sustained by consumer spending pinned against record levels of personal debt, which is secured, if at all, against house prices that the Bank of England describes as well above equilibrium level?" Brown replied, "As the Bank of England said yesterday, consumer spending is returning to trend. The Governor said, "there is no indication that the scale of debt problems have ... risen markedly in the last five years." He also said that the fraction of household income used up in debt service is lower than it was then."

In his book The Storm, Cable writes, "The trigger for the current global financial crisis was the US mortgage market and, indeed, the scale of improvident and unscrupulous lending on that side of the Atlantic dwarfs into insignificance the escapades of our own banks." In an interview about the book, Cable was asked whether he had warned about this. Cable replied, "No, I didn’t. That’s quite true." He continued, "But you’re quite right, and one of the problems of being a British MP is that you do tend to get rather parochial and I haven’t been to the States for years and years, so I wouldn’t claim to have any feel for what’s been going on there."

In September 2008, Cable praised the-then US President George W. Bush for his response to the financial crisis and for attempting to "save Western capitalism." He compared this with Prime Minister Gordon Brown's response which Cable claimed was to be like a "Fairy Godmother" to the banks, and a "sideshow."

Cable has also been vocal over the bonus culture in the banking system. He has called for bonuses to all bank employees to be frozen.

However, Cable has been criticised by some, mostly Conservatives, for "flip-flopping" on issues in connection with the crisis. For example, he is accused of criticising the Government's policy of Quantitative Easing, when in January 2009 he used the phrase "the Robert Mugabe school of economics", while in March 2009 he said, "directly increasing the amount of money flowing into the economy is now the only clear option". The Liberal Democrats also have responded that he was making the point that QE "needed to be managed with a great deal of care".

On the issue of fiscal stimulus, Cable told the BBC in October 2008, "it is entirely wrong for the government to assume the economy should be stimulated by yet more public spending rather than tax cuts". In February 2009, however, he said, "we believe – and the Government say that they believe – in the need for a fiscal stimulus. Despite the severe financial constraints on the public sector, we believe that such a stimulus is right and necessary".

On the principle of the independence of the Bank of England, Cable said at the 2008 Liberal Democrat party conference, "The Government must not compromise the independence of the Bank of England by telling it to slash interest rates." The following month, though, he called on the Chancellor to urge the Governor of the Bank to make "a large cut in interest rates". The Liberal Democrats have responded that this in no way changes their policy on Bank of England independence.

Coalition government minister (2010–15)

At the 2010 general election Cable was again returned as MP for Twickenham. With the election resulting in a hung parliament, Cable was a key figure in coalition talks, particularly the unsuccessful negotiations with the Labour Party. The Liberal Democrats entered a coalition agreement with the Conservative Party on 11 May 2010, and Cable was appointed Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills on 12 May. The Queen approved his appointment as a Privy Counsellor, and he formally joined the Privy Council on 13 May 2010.

In May 2010, Cable insisted the coalition government was not split over planned increases to non-business Capital Gains Tax, which some thought would raise taxes on sales of second homes by 40% or 50%. Senior Conservative MPs attacked the rise as a tax on the middle-classes and a betrayal of Conservative values. Cable told BBC News it was a "key" part of the coalition deal and there was no disagreement over it between the coalition partners. Cable said the changes to Capital Gains Tax would help to fulfil the Lib Dem aim of bringing more "fairness" to the tax system: "It's very important that we have wealth taxed in the same way as income." He continued,

At present it is quite wrong and it is an open invitation to tax avoidance to have people taxed at 40% or potentially 50% on their income, but only taxed at 18% on capital gains; it leads to large scale tax avoidance so for reasons of fairness and practicality, we have agreed that the capital gains tax system needs to be fundamentally reformed."

He insisted there was no real disagreement at the top of government over the changes: "It's not actually an argument between the coalition partners, as I understand it, it's an argument between a few Conservative backbenchers and others".

In July 2010, Cable dismissed claims that there "isn't a problem" with credit lines. He demanded that banks curb bonus payments and use the cash to boost lending instead. A green paper on bank lending that Cable launched on 26 July 2010, specifically urged banks to limit bonus and dividend payments to "pre-crisis and 2009 levels respectively". The green paper states that the move would enable banks to retain £10,000,000,000 of additional capital in 2010 could in turn sustain £50,000,000,000 of new lending. Cable's demands came as the Forum of Private Business said that small firms were finding it harder to secure loans. The trade body said its latest Economy Watch survey found that there was a "significant demand" not being met by banks with conditions worsening in recent weeks. The FPB said that 1% of respondents said access to finance has improved, compared to 3% in May, and 15% said it has worsened. In addition, 67% said they had seen no changes in their ability to secure loans.

The British left-wing press were critical of his role in the Coalition Government, from The Guardian to The Morning Star describing him as "the man who started off a Lib Dem and now looks more convincingly Tory than most of the Tory frontbench" for his role in supporting public spending cuts.

Beginning in 2010 and continuing throughout the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition's tenure in office, Cable led the drive for deregulation; notably the "Red Tape Challenge" to reduce existing regulation and the "One In, One Out" rule to limit any future regulation, Cable agreeing with the need for a "bonfire of regulations". The Guardian dubbed this as "neoliberal" while the response from the business community was largely positive.

In September 2010, during a speech at the Liberal Democrat conference, Cable said that bankers present more of a threat to Britain than trade unions. Cable said that "On banks, I make no apology for attacking spivs and gamblers who did more harm to the British economy than Bob Crow could achieve in his wildest Trotskyite fantasies, while paying themselves outrageous bonuses underwritten by the taxpayer. There is much public anger about banks and it is well deserved."

After the interim report on banking by Sir John Vickers was published in April 2011, Cable said: "I read it over the weekend and I was very impressed with the quality of the analysis. It does address head on the issue of banks that are too big to fail, the dependency on the government guarantee. It makes the case for separation," he added.

In June 2011, Cable said "rewards for failure" were unforgivable at a time when real wages were being squeezed across the country. Speaking yesterday at the Association of British Insurers biennial conference, the Liberal Democrat Cabinet Minister warned he planned to bring "excessive and unjustified" pay under control by launching a fresh consultation into the subject next month. "Britain does have some world-class executives and one of the real privileges of my job is dealing with them," he said. "But let's not forget that, using the FTSE 100 as a benchmark, investors have barely seen a return since the turn of the century. For most of that time, they would have been better off investing in government bonds. "And yet, in 2010, average total pay for FTSE 100 chief executives was 120 times that of the average UK employee. Back in 1998, the multiple was 45."

In January 2012, Cable told the House of Commons: "We cannot continue to see chief executives' pay rising at 13% a year while the performance of companies on the stock exchange languishes well behind." Cable said companies would be required to publish "more informative remuneration reports" for shareholders. There would be an obligation to highlight notice periods for executives that were longer than a year, and substantial exit packages. He also suggested moves to ensure that remuneration committees were more diverse – including potentially two members who had not served on boards before. "I want to see more people appointed to boards who come from different backgrounds," he said.

In January 2013, Cable rejected calls by Labour for the government to intervene in the high street crisis following the collapse of music retailer, HMV, he said

“I am personally worried when I see hundreds, thousands of people losing their jobs… but it is not the job of Government to sort out the problems of competition on the high street. Consumers make their choices and there are consequences.”

In December 2013, Cable supported the continuation of zero hours contracts after a government review, saying "they have a place in today’s labour market", although admitting there had "been evidence of abuse." His statements were met with negative responses from British trade unions.

In 2014, during the Israel-Gaza conflict, Cable received criticism for his involvement in the signing off of arms deals to Israel, primarily concerning component parts used in the assembly of Hermes drones. Shortly afterwards, he announced that arms exports to Israel would be suspended unless the recently declared ceasefire was upheld, a response which was condemned by Baroness Warsi, and by the CAAT who called it "very weak".

In February 2015, Cable was reportedly a speaker at an event hosted by various arms companies at the London Hilton hotel.

In 2015, Cable refused to issue export licences for the sale of Paveway IV laser-guided bomb to the Royal Saudi Air Force over concern about how they might be used in the Saudi Arabian-led intervention in Yemen. Cable came under pressure from then-Prime Minister David Cameron, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond for the immediate resumption of exports. Cable stated he was then given specific assurances by the Ministry of Defence that the UK would be given oversight of potential bombing targets to minimise the risk of civilian casualties, including involvement in decisions, to a similar level given to the United States. On this understanding, Cable agreed to issue export licences for a £200,000,000 order for the weapons. In 2016, it became apparent the Ministry of Defence did not have this level of oversight, to which Cable responded "That is categorically contrary to what I was told was going to happen." The sale is being investigated by the Committees on Arms Export Controls.

December 2010 Daily Telegraph comments

In late-December 2010, undercover reporters from The Daily Telegraph, posing as constituents, set up a meeting with Cable, who expressed frustration with being in the coalition and compared it to "fighting a war"; he stated he had "a nuclear option... if they push me too far then I can walk out and bring the government down and they know that", and had to "pick" his fights carefully. He also claimed the Liberal Democrats had pressed for a "very tough approach" to the UK's banks, which had been opposed by the Conservatives. He described the coalition's attempt at fast, widespread reforms (including the health service and local governments) as being a "kind of Maoist revolution", and thought "we [the Government] are trying to do too many things... a lot of it is Tory inspired. The problem is not that they are Tory-inspired, but that they haven’t thought them through. We should be putting a brake on them." When his comments appeared in the press, Cable stated, "Naturally I am embarrassed by these comments and I regret them", before reaffirming his commitment to the Coalition Government, stating that "I am proud of what it is achieving".

In an undisclosed part of the Daily Telegraph transcript given to the BBC's Robert Peston by a whistleblower unhappy that the Daily Telegraph had not published Cable's comments in full, Cable stated in reference to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB, "I have declared war on Mr Murdoch and I think we are going to win." Following this revelation, Cable had his responsibility for media affairs – including ruling on Murdoch's takeover plans – withdrawn from his role as Business Secretary. In May 2011, the Press Complaints Commission upheld a complaint regarding the Telegraph's use of subterfuge: "On this occasion, the commission was not convinced that the public interest was such as to justify proportionately this level of subterfuge."

Cable's stature in the Government grew since then, being dubbed "the moral centre of this Coalition" by Peter Oborne, chief political commentator at the Daily Telegraph.

Royal Mail sale

As Business Secretary, Cable oversaw the privatisation of the Royal Mail in 2013. The share price increased by 38% within a day and 70% in a year. The National Audit Office said that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills was too cautious when setting the sale price, but that a planned postal workers' union strike also affected the government's sale price. Cable refused to apologise, and said that the Government had been right to take a cautious approach, pointing out that the sale had raised £2,000,000,000 for the taxpayer, with a further £1,500,000,000 from the 30% stake in Royal Mail which it had retained. The NAO also noted that some "priority investors", had made significant profits following the sale, having been allocated more shares in the belief that they would form part of a stable and supportive shareholder base. However, almost half of the shares allocated to them had been sold within a few weeks of the sale.

Post-ministerial career

Cable lost his seat, previously considered safe, to the Conservative candidate Tania Mathias at the 2015 general election. He lost his majority of 12,140, and lost to Mathias by 2,017 votes. Cable's elimination from Parliament combined with the Liberal Democrats' collective defeat at the election and the formation of a Conservative majority government obliged him to resign as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, a position which he held for the majority of its existence. He had also enjoyed the longest tenure as President of the Board of Trade since that of Peter Thorneycroft, which ended in 1957.

Return to parliament

Cable announced on 18 April 2017 his intention to stand for his former seat of Twickenham at the snap general election. In May 2017, Cable urged Liberal Democrat supporters to vote tactically for Ealing Central and Acton Labour candidate Rupa Huq. At the election, he was successful in winning back his former seat, with a majority of 9,762 votes.

In a cross-party effort shortly after the election, Cable along with former Labour Party Leader Ed Miliband and veteran Conservative MP Ken Clarke made a joint submission to Ofcom, opposing 21st Century Fox's takeover bid of Sky.

Following Tim Farron's resignation as leader of the Liberal Democrats, Cable announced his candidacy in the subsequent leadership election.

In July, he called for pro-EU MPs to support and "rally around" Chancellor Philip Hammond.

Leader of the Liberal Democrats

On 20 July 2017, Cable became leader of the Liberal Democrats after facing no other competition. He is the oldest leader of a major UK political party since Sir Winston Churchill.

Views

Cable has compared himself to centrist French President Emmanuel Macron, adding that as Business Secretary he had worked with Macron (then an economy minister) personally and that they have a "very similar" approach. He believes his party should occupy the "vast middle ground", likening the political conditions of the UK with those of France.

As an economist, Cable considers Adam Smith and John Maynard Keynes to be his heroes, recommending Smith's The Wealth of Nations and Robert Skidelsky’s Life of John Maynard Keynes to novice economists.

Cable has criticised the Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn, referring to its economics as "Venezuelan" and believes it is now dominated by "anti-capitalist zealots". He claims Labour's policy of a large corporation tax hike would have negative effects on consumers and employees rather than reduce inequality. Instead, Cable suggests using land value tax to, for example, replace business rates. He has also long suggested aligning capital gains tax with income tax as a kind of anti-avoidance measure, previously noting this was last a policy of past Conservative Chancellor Nigel Lawson. He believes the Liberal Democrats have more "common ground" with the Conservatives under David Cameron than with Labour under Jeremy Corbyn.

Cable thinks Brexit may never happen. He maintains when people see the economic costs they will turn against it and a cross-party coalition of opponents to Brexit may develop. Cable said, “the whole question of continued membership will once again arise” if people's living standards worsened and unemployment rose. A Survation poll pointed to 53% of people backing a second referendum on accepting or rejecting the final Brexit terms, with 47% opposed.

In 2017, Cable defended the £9,000 per year university tuition fees cap, claiming it would be "dangerous and stupid" and a "cheap populist gesture" to abolish tuition fees, adding that the "40% of students" who go to university should not be subsidised by the "60% who don't". The comments were criticised on social media by figures on the left, while Conservative MP Jo Johnson voiced support for Cable's stance.

Cable has been critical of the National Living Wage, arguing in 2015 that smaller businesses would struggle to pay employees higher rates.

Cable supports the continuation of the Liberal Democrat policy of a hypothecated 1p rise in income tax to pay for improved health and social care.

On housing, Cable has called the demutualisation of building societies "one of the greatest acts of economic vandalism in modern times". He has also backed building on green belts as a solution to the housing crisis.

Personal life

Cable's first wife was Olympia Rebelo, a Goan Roman Catholic, whom he met "in the unromantic setting of a York mental hospital where we happened to be working as nurses during a summer holiday." They had three children together and she completed her PhD at Glasgow University in 1976.

Olympia Cable was diagnosed with breast cancer shortly after the 1987 general election. After apparently successful treatment the disease returned in the mid-1990s and before the 1997 election. Olympia Cable died shortly after the 2001 general election.

In 2004, he married Rachel Wenban Smith. When appearing on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs programme in January 2009, Cable revealed that he wears the wedding rings from both of his marriages.

A keen ballroom dancer, Cable long expressed his desire to appear on the BBC's hit television show Strictly Come Dancing; he appeared on the Christmas 2010 edition of the show, partnered by Erin Boag and dancing the Foxtrot. He performed well and scored 36/40 from the judges, including a mark of 10/10 from head judge Len Goodman. Cable was the second politician to appear on the show, after Ann Widdecombe.

Cable is a Patron of MyBigCareer (a career guidance charity for young people), the Polycystic Kidney Disease Charity (PKD) and is also a Patron of the Changez Charity.

Cable’s eldest grandson is social activist and entrepreneur Ayrton Cable.

Vince Cable was knighted in the 2015 Dissolution Honours List and Received the Insignia of a Knight Bachelor during an Investiture at Buckingham Palace on 18 December 2015.

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