Vince Cable has been on Pienaar’s Politics on Radio 5 Live this morning. He told Pienaar and journalists Paul Waugh and Kate McCann there there were no good outcomes to Brexit.
There are no good options now. We are either going to get a very poor deal or none at all.
He added that the Single market was originally a British project and walking away imposes very major economic costs.
Those costs aren’t being felt yet as business is “sitting on its hands” waiting to see what emerges from the negotiations:
We haven’t got to decision point yet. All the Government has done is got through the first stage of agreeing to have negotiations and what happens then will determine whether there will be large scale disinvestment from the UK.
He confirmed that, when the Bill goes to the Lords, Lib Dem peers will be working with dissident Tory and Labour peers to “improve” the legislation, particularly by adding in a commitment to remain in the single market and customs union.
By the time the Bill comes back to the Commons, those MPs who favour the single market may well be prepared to vote for it.
More and more people were becoming disillusioned with Brexit, he added. He reminded everyone, as you would expect, that we would be pushing for an exit from Brexit referendum, emphasising that it isn’t a second referendum, but the chance for the public to have the final say on the deal.