Vince has been talking to occasional LDV contributor York Membery for the Sunday Times. The interview focused on personal finances.

He says he is definitely better off than his parents:

Undoubtedly, although they were pretty comfortable by the end of their working lives. My parents, Len and Edith, were factory workers and left school at 15, like most people of their generation. But my father was strong on self-improvement. He became a lecturer at a technical college and through a combination of hard work and savings we progressed from a terraced house with an outside loo to a detached house.

This is not something that younger generations can expect.

His first job was in Kenya:

Working as a finance officer for the Kenyan treasury. I was there for two years from 1966 and was paid as a Kenyan civil servant, so my salary was quite modest. It was a fantastic job and I got married while I was out there but never planned to stay. My eldest son now runs a social enterprise that is doing some great work starting up schools in Kenya, so we’ve maintained the family connection with the country.

Vince says he’s a spender rather than a saver:

Mainly a spender. Although I have pension funds from my previous employment with Glasgow University and Shell so I have that underlying security. My instincts are to live life to the full.

He’s had his current home for 44 years:

Yes, a four-bedroom semi-detached house, with the usual suburban extensions, in my Twickenham constituency. It’s a 1930s house and I bought it for £12,500 in 1974. It is now fully paid for. I haven’t had it valued recently, but I imagine it’s worth £800,000-£900,000.

You can read the whole interview here (£).

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