Vince Cable

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Sir John Vincent Cable (born 9 May 1943) is a British politician who served as the Prime Minister of the Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019.

He served in Twickenham from 1997 to 2015, as well as from 2017 to 2019.

He served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Industry, Innovation, and Skills from 2010 to 2015. Cable worked at Cambridge and Glasgow before serving as an economic advisor to the Kenya government in the 1960s and 1980s, as well as in the Commonwealth Secretariat.

He has also lectured in economics at Glasgow during this time.

In the 1990s, he was employed as Shell's Chief Economist.

Cable became a Labour councillor in Glasgow in the 1970s, during which time he served as a special advisor to then-Trade Secretary John Smith.

In 1982, however, he defected to the newly formed Social Democratic Party, which then joined the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats. Cable was elected for Twickenham in 1997 after being unsuccessfully in Parliament four times.

He was quickly appointed as the Liberal Democrat Treasury Spokesman and later elected as Deputy Prime Minister in 2006.

After being named as Secretary of State for Industry, Innovation, and Skills in the coalition government, Cable resigned from both of these positions in May 2010.

He lost his seat in 2015 but recovered it in 2017.

Cable later stood in the leadership race to replace Tim Farron, and was elected unopposed in May 2019. Cable led the Liberal Democrats to their best national electoral results since the 2010 election, winning fifteen seats in the European Parliament election.

This came after a campaign in which the group ran on an anti-Brexit platform under the slogan, "Bollocks to Brexit."

He later declared his intention to withdraw from politics and stood down as leader on July 22, 2019, the first day of Jo Swinson's reelection; he resigned from Parliament in the 2019 general election.

Early life and education

Cable was born in York to a working class Conservative-supporting family. Len's father, Lenn, was a craftsman for Rowntree's, and his mother, Edith, packed chocolates for Terry's. Cable joined Nunthorpe Grammar School as the Head Boy. He later attended Fitzwilliam College in Cambridge, where he first studied Natural Sciences and later switched to Economics. In 1965, he became the President of the Cambridge Union. He served as a member of the Cambridge University Liberal Club and later President-elect, but he resigned from the Liberal Party before taking over the presidency. He was a Cambridge Mafia student while at Cambridge.

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

He earned his PhD in Economics from the University of Glasgow in 1973, on economic integration and industrialisation.

Personal life

Olympia Rebelo, a Kenyan from a Goan Roman Catholic family, was the first wife of Cable's first wife, who he encountered "in the unromantic setting of a York mental hospital where we were visiting as nurses during a summer holiday." They had three children together, and she obtained her PhD in history at Glasgow University in 1976. Olympia was diagnosed with breast cancer right after the 1987 general election. The disease resurfaced in the mid-1990s and the 1997 general election after reportedly successful therapy. She died shortly after the 2001 general election.

He married Rachel Wenban Smith in 2004. Cable revealed that he wore the wedding rings from both of his marriages when appearing on BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs program in January 2009.

Cable long expressed his desire to be on the BBC's hit television show Strictly Come Dancing; he appeared on the Christmas 2010 edition of the show, partnering Erin Boag and dancing the Foxtrot. He did well and received 36/40 from the judges, with a score of ten points from head judge Len Goodman. After former Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe, Cable was the second politician to appear on the show.

Cable is a patron of MyBigCareer, a career guidance charity for young people, and the Polycystic Kidney Disease Charity (PKD), which is a charity that supports young people. The Changez Charity is a member of the The Changez Charity. HCT Group, a social enterprise transport specialist, is the chair of the HCT Group, a social enterprise transport operator.

Ayrton Cable's eldest grandson is a social activist and entrepreneur.

In his memoir, Cable revealed that he had a minor stroke while leading the Liberal Democrats. The stroke took place in May 2018.

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Economics career

Cable worked at the University of Glasgow for a short time before 2004 and was a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics' Centre for Global Governance. Cable was named Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Nottingham in 2016.

He served as a Treasury Finance Officer with the Kenyan Government from 1966 to 1968. He traveled to Central America in 1969 as a researcher on the newly formed Central American Common Market.

Cable served as First Secretary under Hugh Carless' Latin American department of the Foreign Office from the beginning to the late 1970s. At this time, he was embedded in a CBI trade mission to South America, where he was embedded in six months of commercial diplomacy. In the late 1970s, he served as a special advisor to John Smith while the latter was Trade Secretary. In the 1970s and 1980s, he served as an advisor to the UK Government and then to Commonwealth Secretary-General Shridath "Sonny" Ramphal.

Cable appeared at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Delhi in 1983, witnessing "private sessions at first hand" involving Indira Gandhi, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Lee Kuan Yew, and Bob Hawke among others. He appeared at the summits of 1985, 1987, and 1989. He served on the Brandt Commission, the Palme Commission, and the United Nations Brundtland Commission during the same period.

Cable co-wrote many books in favor of globalization, free trade, and economic integration from the 1980s, including Protectionism and Industrial Decline, The Commerce of Culture, and Growing with Foreign Investment.

Cable worked with Royal Dutch Shell from 1990 to 1997, most notably as its Chief Economist from 1995 to 1997. Shell's role came under scrutiny, as the company was accused of being involved in a turbulent period of Nigerian politics during General Sani Abacha's reign.

Cable was a strategic advisor on the World Trade Board in 2017. Misys and FT Live co-organised the annual World Trade Symposium in 2017.

Political career

Cable was a Liberal student at a university but then moved to the Labour Party in 1966. He fought Glasgow Hillhead for Labour in 1970, but he was unable to depose Tam Galbraith, the sitting Conservative MP. Cable stood for election to the Corporation of Glasgow in the Partick West ward last year but was not able to be elected. In 1971, he became a Labour councillor in 1971, representing Maryhill's ward, and he resigned in 1974. He ran for the Labour Party nomination for Hampstead in 1979, losing to Ken Livingstone who was unsuccessful in seeking the position.

He delegated to the newly formed Social Democratic Party in February 1982 (SDP). In both the 1983 and 1987 general elections, he was the SDP-Liberal Alliance parliamentary candidate for his home city of York. By 5,711 votes in the Twickenham constituency, following the 1988 general election of the SDP and the Liberal Party, he finished in second place.

Cable defeated Toby Jessel, a retired Conservative MP, in his second attempt at the 1997 general election in the Twickenham constituency. He then increased his majority at the 2010 and 2005 elections, then increased even more in 2010. He lost his seat in 2015 in 2015 but recovered it in 2017 at the snap election.

Cable was a contributor to the economically democratic Orange Book in 2004, which called for greater government involvement in higher education and healthcare. However, he has referred to himself as a social democratic reformer as well as a "open markets" liberal, and has stated his desire to reconcile "economic liberty" with greater moral and social justice.

Cable was one of many Lib Dem MPs who influenced the party's shift toward economic nationalism with the adoption of a more free market strategy, according to some as having helped lead to the 2010 coalition with the Conservatives. In 2005, as a Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, he suggested that the party abandoning its pledge to a 50 percent top rate of income tax, advocated excluding people from income tax completely, and investigated the possibility of a flat levy, with the former two options later becoming party policy. He said in 2005 that there was no way for the Liberal Democrats to the left of New Labour. He was dismissive of the Labour government's sluggish response to reducing government waste, and later accused Labour of encouraging the establishment of a "writhing nest" of quangos.

Cable did not rule out the possibility that the Lib Dems could form a coalition government with the Conservatives in the case of a hung parliament in the forthcoming general election. However, party leader Charles Kennedy said that the Lib Dems would remain a "independence political power."

Cable delivered Charles Kennedy a letter signed by eleven out of the twenty-three frontbenchers, including himself, expressing disappointment in Kennedy's leadership of the Liberal Democrats in late-2005 or early-2006. Charles Kennedy declared a leadership election on January 5, 2006, despite pressure from his frontbench staff and an ITN News study exposing his alcoholism, despite vowing to run for re-election. However, he resigned on January 7th. Cable did not run for the party leadership, but rather endorsed Menzies Campbell's candidacy.

Instead of the Additional Cost Allowance, a Twickenham resident, Cable commuted by rail into Central London daily, and so claimed the "London Supplement" instead of the Additional Cost Allowance. However, The Daily Telegraph revealed in May 2009 that he had been unaware that he was entitled to the London Supplement and, in 2004, he wrote to the Fees Office to ask if retrospective payments were available for 2002–03 and 2003–04. The Fees Office denied the request, reminding Cable that these accounts had already closed.

Cable came in 568th out of 645 MPs when total MP allowances were ranked. He did not take a recent salary increase, according to the Daily Telegraph, who also confirmed that he did not have a recent 2.3 percent increase.

Cable has been lauded for his repeated warnings and campaigns about the country's high level of personal debt. During the Northern Rock crisis, he was a leading voice of resistance, calling for the nationalization of the bank, and capitalizing on the accusations of indecisiveness of both the Labour government and the Conservative Opposition on the issue.

Cable resigned as Deputy Chairman in May 2010 after more time in his Cabinet position as Business Secretary. When it was revealed in December 2010 that he had boasted to Daily Telegraph journalists posing as supporters of his "nuclear option" to bring the government down by his resignation, his responsibilities and authority were somewhat reduced. Worse, he told reporters that he had "declared war" on Rupert Murdoch of News Corporation, despite the fact that it was not legally arbitrate on the News Corporation's offer to purchase the remaining 69% of BSkyB that it did not already own. All his obligations regarding the campaign were discarded as a result of calls for his resignation or dismissal. Cable did not resign, and he did not resign.

Following Sir Menzies Campbell's resignation as Party Leader on October 15, Cable became the Party Leader automatically, pending a leadership election. Cable was turned down for leader, despite reportedly fearing ageism (Campbell's detractors were accused of ageism, and Cable was just 2 years old).

Cable's tenure as Acting Party Leader received acclaim throughout his tenure as Acting Party Leader, with particular praise for his outstanding performance at Prime Minister's Questions. He was known in the party and media for his smears on the government's record regarding the disappearance of 25 million people's child welfare data and the party funding scandal surrounding David Abrahams' clandestine contributions to the Labour Party. Gordon Brown's "remarkable transformation in the last few weeks from Stalin to Mr. Bean, creating chaos rather than order out of chaos," the former Prime Minister described by The Economist, "the single best line of Gordon Brown's premiership."

Cable is traced back to some of the global financial crisis of 2007-2010. "Is not the shocking truth that... the growth of the British economy is fueled by consumer spending, which is shielded, if at all, against historically high house prices, which the Bank of England calls as well above equilibrium level." "Consumer spending is returning to trend," Brown said yesterday. "There is no evidence that the number of debt problems have increased in recent five years," the governor said. The percentage of household income used up in debt service, according to him, is lower than it was previously."

"The root of the current global financial crisis, on the other hand, was the US mortgage market, and, indeed, the degree of improvident and unscrupulous lending on that side of the Atlantic dwarfs turned into insignificance, according to Cable's book "The Storm." "One of the challenges of being a British MP is that you get rather parochial, and I haven't been to the States for years and years, so I can't say I would have any idea what's going on there."

Cable lauded former US President George W. Bush's response to the financial crisis and for his efforts to "save Western capitalism" in September 2008. He likened this to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's reaction, which Cable said was to be like a "Fairy Godmother" to the banks and a "sideshow."

Cable has also protested the banking system's bonus culture. He has ordered that all bank workers be frozen in pay.

However, some, mainly Conservatives, have chastised Cable for "flip-flopping" on topics relating to the crisis. For example, he is accused of criticizing the Government's quantitative easing program when he used the term "the Robert Mugabe school of economics" in January 2009, while in March 2009, he said, "actually increasing the amount of money flowing into the economy is now the only obvious option." The Liberal Democrats also remarked that he had made the argument that QE "should be handled with a great deal of compassion."

"It's entirely wrong for the government to believe that the economy should be stimulated by further public investment rather than tax cuts," Cable said in October 2008. "We believe – and the Government insist – in the need for a fiscal stimulus," he said in February 2009. Given the severe financial constraints that the public sector faces, we believe that such a stimulus is both appropriate and necessary."

"The government cannot compromise the Bank of England's independence by telling it to cut interest rates," Cable said at the 2008 Liberal Democratic Party conference. However, the following month, he called on the Chancellor to advise the Governor of the Bank to make "a significant decrease in interest rates." Liberal Democrats have said that this does not change their Bank of England policy in any way.

Cable was elected as an MP for Twickenham again in the 2010 general election. Cable was a central figure in coalition talks, particularly in the failed negotiations with the Labour Party, with the result in a hung parliament. On May 11, 2010, the Liberal Democrats entered a coalition deal with the Conservative Party, and Cable was named Secretary of State for Enterprise, Innovation, and Skills on May 12th. The Queen approved his appointment as a Privy Counsellor, and he officially joined the Privy council on May 13, 2010.

Cable in May 2010 claimed that the coalition government was not split over proposed increases to non-business Capital Gains Tax, which some believed would raise taxes on second home sales by 40% or 50%. Senior Conservative MPs reacted angrily to the increase as a charge on the middle class and a betrayal of Conservative values. It was a "significant" piece of the coalition agreement, according to Cable, and there was no disagreement between the coalition partners over it. Cable said that the changes to Capital Gains Tax would help to achieve the Liberal Dem's goal of increasing "fairness" to the tax system: "It's really important that we have wealth taxed in the same way as income."

He continued,

Cable attempted to update credit lines in July 2010 amid a "strong demand" (according to the Forum of Private Business), smaller companies finding it impossible to obtain loans. Cable pleaded with banks to limit bonus and dividend payments to "pre-crisis and 2009 levels respectively," the green paper said, implying that such a change would result in banks' ability to maintain £10,000,000,000 in new lending could result in the loss of £50,000,000,000 in new lending in 2010.

The left-wing of the British press has sluggishly dismissed his participation in the Coalition Government, from The Guardian to the Morning Star, who now describes him as "the guy who started a Lib Dem and now appears more Tory than most of the Tory frontbench" for his role in promoting public spending cuts.

Cable pioneered deregulation from 2010 to present, including the "Red Tape Challenge" to reduce existing regulations and the "One In, One Out" rule to limit any future enforcement, with Cable agreeing with the need for a "bonfire of regulations," beginning in 2010. The Guardian dubbed this "neoliberal," although the company's reaction was mostly positive.

Cable said that bankers pose more of a danger to Britain than trade unions in September 2010.

"I was really impressed with the analysis after the interim study on banking by John Vickers was released in April 2011, Cable said: It does touch on the issue of banks that are too large to fail, as well as the government's reliance on the government guarantee. Separation makes the case for divorce," he said.

"Rewards for failure" were unforgivable at a time when real wages were being squeezed around the world, Cable said in June 2011. Cable, who spoke at the Association of British Insurers' biennial conference, warned that he planned to bring "excessive and unjustified" executive compensation under control by starting a new inquiry. "Britain does have some world-class executives," the CEO said, although "Britain does have some" and that executive salaries were 120 times higher than the average UK employee, although it was only 45 in 1998. Cable later revealed government proposals that would require employers to release "more detailed remuneration reports" for shareholders. As well as greater transparency and representation on boards, the proposals also included binding votes by shareholders on executive compensation as well as increased transparency and representation on boards.

Cable introduced the first of many changes to employment laws in November 2011. He suggested the introduction of tribunal fees for employees making allegations against employers, beginning with the upgrade of the tribunal system, claiming that the new framework had been a "significant barrier" to small businesses recruiting employees. Following a court win by trade union UNISON, the tribunal fees were later found unlawful by the Supreme Court in 2017.

Cable blasted the "red tape factories" of the European Union in an article in May 2012, calling for greater control and labour market flexibility, as well as the expansion of the Single Market and scrapping the Working Time Directive. At a recent meeting of European economic ministers, he revealed that a coalition of like-minded nations had formed in support of these same demands.

Cable and his department colleague Michael Fallon declared a massive package of deregulation for businesses in September 2012, including the removal of 3,000 controls and establishing waivers from health and safety inspections for shops, pubs, and offices. Businesses should not be "tied up in unnecessary red tape," according to cable TV, but trade unions opposed the change. Cable announced a day later that deregulation involving changes to employment legislation was delayed, promising to reduce employee compensation for unfair dismissals and encouraging employers and employees to opt for an out-of-court 'payoff' for under-performance dismissals. Trade unions had also sluggish about this.

Following Labour's demise of HMV, Cable refused calls by asking for the government to intervene in the high street crisis in January 2013. Consumers make their decisions and there are consequences. Following a government review, Cable suggested that zero hours contracts be retained, adding that "they have a place in today's labor market" but that "there have been signs of abuse." British trade unions had skepticism about his comments.

Cable was chastised for his role in the transfer of arms to Israel, mainly because of component parts used in the manufacturing of Hermes drones in 2014. He said shortly afterwards that arms exports to Israel would be suspended unless the recently declared ceasefire was upheld, a reaction that was condemnable by Baroness Warsi and the CAAT, who called it "very bad."

Cable was reportedly a speaker at an event hosted by various arms firms at a London hotel in February 2015.

Cable refused to issue export licenses for the sale of the Paveway IV laser-guided bomb to the Royal Saudi Air Force in 2015 due to questions over how they could be used in the Saudi Arabian-led war in Yemen. Cable came under pressure from former Prime Minister David Cameron, Defence Secretary Michael Fallon, and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond for the immediate restoration of exports. Cable said he was then given specific guarantees by the Ministry of Defense that the UK would have control of future bombing targets to minimize civilian casualties, including participation in decisions, to a level similar to the United States. Cable has agreed to issue export licenses for a £200 million order for the weapons. Cable replied, "That is clearly contradictory to what I was told would happen" in 2016, when it became clear that the Ministry of Defense did not have such control, which Cable replied, "which is categorically contradict to what I was told was going to happen." The sale is being investigated by the Committees on Arms Export Controls.

Undercover reporters from The Daily Telegraph in late-December 2010 set up a meeting with Cable, who expressed indignation with being part of the alliance and compared it to "fighting a war"; he said he had "a nuclear option"; but they could walk out and bring the government down; and they'd know it." He also said that Liberal Democrats had pressed for a "very tough approach" to the UK's banks, which had previously been opposed by the Conservatives. He characterized the coalition's attempts to implement fast, widespread reforms (including the health service and local governments) as a "mooist revolution" and that "we [the Government] are trying to do too many things... a lot of it is Tory inspired." They are not because they are Tory-inspired, but they haven't thought them through. We should be putting a halt to them." Cable said, "I am embarrassed by these words and I regret them," he said in the press before reaffirming his pledge to the Coalition Government and adding that he is proud of what it has achieved.

Cable said in reference to Rupert Murdoch's takeover bid for BSkyB, "I have declared war on Mr Murdoch and I think we are going to win." Cable had his job for media affairs following this revelation, as well as a decision regarding Murdoch's takeover bids, but he was barred from his position as Business Secretary. The Press Complaints Commission upheld a complaint involving the Telegraph's use of subterfuge in May 2011.

Cable's status in the government has increased since then, being dubbed "the emotional center of this Alliance" by Peter Oborne, chief political commentator at the Daily Telegraph.

Cable, as Business Secretary, oversaw the privatization of the Royal Mail in 2013. The share price increased by 38 percent in a day and 70% in a year. The National Audit Office said that the Department of Enterprise, Innovation, and Skills was too conservative in determining the sale price, but that a proposed postal workers' union strike also affected the government's selling price. Cable refused to apologize, but said that the government had taken the correct decision to take a cautious approach, noting that the sale had raised £2,000,000,000 from the taxpayer's 30% interest in Royal Mail, which had been kept. Following the issuance of more shares in the hopes of establishing a stable and supportive shareholder base, the NAO reported that some "priority investors" had made significant money following the sale. However, nearly half of the shares they had been sold within a few weeks of the auction.

Cable lost his seat, once considered safe, to Conservative candidate Tania Mathias in the 2015 general election, with a majority of 12,140. Mathias gained a majority of 2,017 votes. Cable's withdrawal from Parliament, as well as the Liberal Democrats' collective defeat at the election, and the formation of a Conservative majority government compelled him to resign as Secretary of State for Finance, Innovation, and Skills, a position where he served for the majority of the company's existence. He had also served as President of the Board of Trade since the time of Peter Thorneycroft, which began in 1957.

Cable announced on April 18th, 2017 that he would contest for his former seat in Twickenham at the snap general election. Cable urged Liberal Democrats to vote strategically for Ealing Central and Acton Labour candidate Rupa Huq in May 2017. With a majority of 9,762 votes, he was able to regain his former seat in the run-up.

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

Cable declared his candidacy in the forthcoming leadership race following Tim Farron's departure as the Liberal Democrats' leader.

In July, he called on pro-EU MPs to "work with" Chancellor Philip Hammond.

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