Author Archives: Vince Cable MP

Vince Cable’s speech to LibDem conference

By Vince Cable MP | Published 19th September 2011 - 4:39 pm

You can watch Vince’s speech to the Lib Dem conference here…


(Available on the BBC website here.)

Or you can read the text in full here…

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Posted in Conference | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Vince Cable: Why the VAT rise had to happen

By Vince Cable MP | Published 23rd June 2010 - 6:51 pm

With annual borrowing of £160bn and a massive blank where Labour’s plans for deficit reduction should have been, this was always going to be a tough Budget – arguably the toughest since the 1980s. Some extraordinarily difficult decisions have been made to avoid an even worse crisis. Foremost amongst these was the decision to raise VAT from 17.5 to 20 percent.

Through the election campaign, all three prospective Chancellors were asked about VAT, and we all answered in exactly the same way: we have no plans to raise it, but we cannot rule it out. In fact, that was my position …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged | 140 Comments

Vince Cable on the Liberal Democrat Fairer Future Economic Recovery Plan

By Vince Cable MP | Published 30th September 2008 - 10:45 am

Gordon Brown’s response to the economic crisis has been too little, too late.

For years I warned him of the oncoming economic problems. Unsustainable levels of personal debt, mostly secured against the illusory ‘wealth’ of rising, vastly inflated property prices. An economy based so heavily on debt was never going to be in a fit state to deal with global shocks like the credit crunch.

And so it has proved. Gordon Brown is now facing the consequences of his years of inaction. The housing bubble has burst. Unemployment is rising fast. Tens of thousands of families are losing their homes.

With people struggling …

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Posted in Op-eds | Tagged , | 30 Comments

Opinion: non-domiciles and tax

By Vince Cable MP | Published 18th February 2008 - 2:25 pm

The Chancellor has performed yet another climb-down from his Pre-Budget tax proposals made in October last year, as a ‘clarification’ of proposals to tax non-domiciles was announced in order to correct previous ‘misunderstandings’.

Following fast on the heels of the Capital Gains Tax debacle, this most recent retreat makes the Government look thoroughly foolish. Once again it is painfully obvious that ministers hadn’t thought through the implications of their own policy plans.

The Liberal Democrats were the first party to highlight serious tax avoidance abuses by non-dom residents, and called for non-dom status to be limited to a specified number of years.  …

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Posted in Op-eds | 17 Comments

Vince Cable: we will force a referendum vote in Parliament

By Vince Cable MP | Published 11th November 2007 - 10:18 am

Tomorrow the Liberal Democrats will table an amendment to the Government’s parliamentary motion proposing the Queen’s Speech. Our amendment calls for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union.

This does not signal a change in our party’s attitude towards the Europe. We remain constructively pro-European, but we see this referendum as an opportunity to have a proper debate about the future of Britain’s relationship with the EU.

Over thirty five years as a member state, we have seen the EU widen both its membership and share sovereignty from Mrs Thatcher’s Single European Act through to a succession of …

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Posted in News, Op-eds, Parliament | 24 Comments