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Twickenham MP Vince Cable: 'I will not quit'

9:54am Tuesday 21st December 2010 in News By Joanna Kilvington

Twickenham MP Vince Cable today insisted he would not walk out of Government after telling undercover reporters the coalition was "like fighting a war".

The Business Secretary was recorded making the claims to reporters from the Daily Telegraph - posing as his Twickenham constituents - and claimed he would use the “nuclear option”.

During an interview at his constituency office, he is reported to have said: “They know I have nuclear weapons, but I don’t have any conventional weapons.

“If they push me too far then I can walk out and bring the Government down and they know that.

“So it is a question of how you use that intelligently without getting involved in a war that destroys all of us. That is quite a difficult position to be in and I am picking my fights. Some of which you may have seen."

The Telegraph also reported Dr Cable had criticised the speed at which the coalition was trying to push through change, without thinking through properly what they were doing, and suggested the Liberal Democrats should be “putting a break on it”.

However, in a later statement, Dr Cable said: "Naturally I am embarrased by these comments and I regret them.

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"I have no intention of leaving the Government.

"I am proud of what it is achieving and will continue to play my full part in delivering the priorities I and my party believe in, which are enshrined in the coalition agreement."

His comments were the second time this month he has seemingly embarrassed the Government by revealing his private thoughts about tensions within the coalition without realising they would be published.

He told the Richmond and Twickenham Times on December 3 that he would vote for a rise in tuition fees.

He had earlier only offered to abstain to offer an "olive branch" to his Liberal Democrat colleagues who found the policy "difficult".

He later admitted he had assumed his candid comments would not be printed until the following week, after the House of Commons vote.

However, the story was picked up from the Richmond and Twickenham Times website by all the major broadcasters within hours, setting Dr Cable on a collision course with members of his own party who had signed a pledge to oppose any increase.

Read the full digital edition of this week's Richmond and Twickenham Times - which will only be available online as an e-edition - right here on Christmas Eve.

Comments(20)

Scott Naylor says...
11:11am Tue 21 Dec 10

Oh Dear oh Dear oh Dear Dr Cable, nothing to do with the local party leaning on you then is this, as reported from the AGM, with another even more left-winger Lib Dem oppositon leader Stephen Knight disagreeing in thinly veiled words about the tuition fees?

What does everyone else think?

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Julie Hill says...
12:41pm Tue 21 Dec 10

Our saintly MP, the Invincible Vince might find some gaffer tape in his Christmas stocking and he'll have to do some very fancy foot work to quick step out of this latest gaffe.

His number of own goals must be rattling his party faithful and I expect his local Lib Dem colleagues will be scutting to the back room of his Lion Road HQ for crisis talks.

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WilburB says...
12:44pm Tue 21 Dec 10

So Vince has being caught out fibbing again. First to the local and national electorate over tuition fees and now to what he thought were local constituents over what he will do if pushed to far in government. If this morning he had said, "Yes, I stand by what I said to my constituent" then he may have redeemed himself a bit with the electorate and made the Coalition rethink some of their plans. However he has now denied he will quit and has proven that is cannot be trusted by his local constituents, party and coalition partners. First he broke his manifesto promises and now he is not being truthfull to constituents. Are there now grounds for him to be recalled?

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Longstanding Local says...
2:55pm Tue 21 Dec 10

“You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time”. Let that be Mr Cable’s motto. I have heard that the Conservatives wanted to cut the OAPs winter fuel benefits. That’s how out of touch our millionaire PM and Chancellor are. I can only assume that the reason they have not done this yet is because the Liberals/Mr C may have been a restraining influence. If the tuition fees debacle is the moderated Conservatives we can only imagine what Mr Cable is up against. Mr Cables “outburst” communicates his stress and gives an indication of exactly what he is dealing with. It was well timed and I suspect he realised they were reporters.

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Longstanding Local says...
2:58pm Tue 21 Dec 10

“You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time”. Let that be Mr Cable’s motto. I have heard that the Conservatives wanted to cut the OAPs winter fuel benefits. That’s how out of touch our millionaire PM and Chancellor are. I can only assume that the reason they have not done this yet is because the Liberals/Mr C may have been a restraining influence. If the tuition fees debacle is the moderated Conservatives we can only imagine what Mr Cable is up against. Mr Cables “outburst” communicates his stress and gives an indication of exactly what he is dealing with. It was well timed and I suspect he realised they were reporters.

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Longstanding Local says...
2:59pm Tue 21 Dec 10

“You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time”. Let that be Mr Cable’s motto. I have heard that the Conservatives wanted to cut the OAPs winter fuel benefits. That’s how out of touch our millionaire PM and Chancellor are. I can only assume that the reason they have not done this yet is because the Liberals/Mr C may have been a restraining influence. If the tuition fees debacle is the moderated Conservatives we can only imagine what Mr Cable is up against. Mr Cables “outburst” communicates his stress and gives an indication of exactly what he is dealing with. It was well timed and I suspect he realised they were reporters.

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Longstanding Local says...
3:01pm Tue 21 Dec 10

“You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time”. Let that be Mr Cable’s motto. I have heard that the Conservatives wanted to cut the OAPs winter fuel benefits. That’s how out of touch our millionaire PM and Chancellor are. I can only assume that the reason they have not done this yet is because the Liberals/Mr C may have been a restraining influence. If the tuition fees debacle is the moderated Conservatives we can only imagine what Mr Cable is up against. Mr Cables “outburst” communicates his stress and gives an indication of exactly what he is dealing with. It was well timed and I suspect he realised they were reporters.

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Longstanding Local says...
4:22pm Tue 21 Dec 10

“You can please some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time”. Let that be Mr Cable’s motto. I have heard that the Conservatives wanted to cut the OAPs winter fuel benefits. That’s how out of touch our millionaire PM and Chancellor are. I can only assume that the reason they have not done this yet is because the Liberals/Mr C may have been a restraining influence. If the tuition fees debacle is the moderated Conservatives we can only imagine what Mr Cable is up against.

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alex twickenham says...
5:39pm Tue 21 Dec 10

I'm not sure whether "Longstanding local of Hampton" had a problem with his mouse or his ability to defend the indefensible - nevertheless one or two posts would have been enough, so perhaps I could be forgiven for repeating mine here:

I see that Vince has now declared war on Rupert Murdoch - is that a fight he should be picking? At the very least it puts him in an impossible situation over the BSkyB share buyback decision What on earth does he think he's playing at? The calm reassuring voice of reason seems to be rapidly turning into a battle cry. For someone who claims to be picking fights sensibly he seems to be incredibly foolish or naive - I can't think which trait is worse in a Business Secretary. If he's so keen to leave government, why didn't he bow out with honour over the student tax rather than allow hubris to bring him down without honour - or was it yet another case of a mature politician bowled over by a pretty face?
Whatever - his position is hopelessly compromised and he should "step aside" immediately.
It's the headline story on Radio 4's PM right now - well worth listening to.
Alex

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Eyeball says...
5:56pm Tue 21 Dec 10

Ohh Dear

Longstanding Local, Hampton

Are you trying to hammer home a message in support of Mr Plip Flop?
It looks like a brownie point scoring excersize to me. You may even get a few pats on the head for being so faithfull
Five goes at propping him up. He must be getting rather heavy now
Regards Eyballing you

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MacGregor says...
8:11pm Tue 21 Dec 10

To continue the dancing analogies for Vincent Cable – he’s got two Leftie feet, and – to quote Guido Fawkes’ blog – he may be heading for his “Last Tango in Whitehall”.

Indeed, Cable has had an incredible run of good luck in Twickenham because I am amazed he’s not been tripped up by his own words before.

For instance he was able to travel all the way to Glasgow in 2009 – where he had been a Labour councillor 30 years earlier – because he disagreed with a potential council matter. Compare, and contrast this to Cable informing his infuriated constituents in Twickenham that he didn’t get involved in council matters – when his Lib Dem council colleagues planned to concrete over part of Twickenham Riverside for luxury housing. This also suggests Cable deploys double-standards.

And Longstanding Local, Hampton has taken something Cable said as being set in stone when it was couched in vagueness – which is more in line with Cable’s political flip-flopping. Note Cable’s qualification of “I think” here: “They haven't yet done the winter fuel payments, but that's coming, I think."

One of Cable’s former Comrades – Roy Hattersley – said in a review of one of Cable’s books: “Vince – as they say in Yorkshire, home to us both – "thinks a lot of himself".” The rest is here:
http://www.guardian.
co.uk/books/2009/nov
/14/free-radical-vin
ce-cable-review

Hattersley must have been prefiguring what must surely be a fantasy for Cable – that his exit alone could bring down the coalition government.

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Julie Hill says...
9:06pm Tue 21 Dec 10

Here's another example of tripping up over his own words. Residents a close distance from Dr Cable's Lion Road HQ will NEVER forgive him for breaking his promise, in an email, to “kick up a fuss” on our behalf to stop Richmond Council selling off our much needed garage site.

When his Lib Dem party took back control of Richmond upon Thames Council in 2006, they created a divisive, discriminatory policy SPECIFICIALLY to EXCLUDE social rented housing from a prime site on Twickenham Riverside (and one in Richmond) so that they could flog the sites off for luxury housing and instead dump the social rented housing on unsuitable pockets of land elsewhere. Some Socialist policy!

Ironically, it was residents who kicked up a fuss. We castigated the Lib Dems about their unfair policy, discriminating against not only the existing community but the prospective tenants, squashed into small houses, with small gardens for large families, with no river views and no parking provision. We begged Vince Cable to intervene.

Now this had become a Lib Dem Policy, he said he didn’t get involved in local issues (what sort of an MP says that?). His Lib Dem comrades hailed the “linked sites strategy” inspired and one of the three (thankfully) ex Lib Dem Ward Councillors said tenants would “just have to choose between a house or a car”.

Power to the People of Richmond upon Thames, who thankfully stopped the Riverside Scheme as arrogant Lib Dem Council Leader Serge Lourie rose to the challenge and made it an election issue. Result? He lost his job as Leader and Kew Councillor as did the three Twickenham Riverside Councillors.

Sadly though, in a final act of spite, the sale of our much needed garage site, multi award winning community garden created by the community for the community and our only and cherished street scene trees was signed off to Paragon / Richmond Churches Housing Trust on the very day of the Election - 6th May 2010.

Dr Cable was party to all of this.

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MacGregor says...
9:40pm Tue 21 Dec 10

Reading Julie Hill’s post about Vincent Cable’s broken promise of helping his constituents stop his Lib Dem council colleagues selling much needed garages in Sherland Road for ever more housing, reminds me when Cable did protest against Richmond Council over the issue of Buckingham Fields in Hampton.

On 25 March 2002 the decision for a 3.5m high, cranked top, ball retaining fencing was ratified by the Lib Dem cabinet under the chairmanship of their now-former leader Cllr Lourie, and on the recommendation of their deputy leader, the Executive Member for Education Cllr Knight.

After losing power on 4 May 2002, the Lib Dems proceeded to scapegoat Conservative Cllr Geoffrey Samuel – with vicious attacks – on a situation that they themselves had created. Compounding the Lib Dems’ hypocrisy, Vincent Cable even joined the protest against this fence. This suggests Vincent Cable only attacks Richmond Council if it is run by the Conservatives – and also suggests another example of his double-standards.

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jeremyhm says...
9:58am Wed 22 Dec 10

Cable is quoted as saying "I can bring down the Government". In fact, of course, it is the Government that can bring him down.
Any right minded politician would in these circumstances have at least offered to resign.
What's got into Twickenham LibDem politicians? First Lourie thinks he's the master not the servant of the residents, now this fiasco. An outbreak of hubris.
I am ashamed that this man is our representative at Westminster. He should apologise to us, and to the people who voted for him, not just to the Prime Minister.
As to an earlier comment that he probably knew he was talking to undercover journalists, why then did he say afterwards "I am embarrassed by these comments and regret them"?

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bandit63 says...
10:06am Wed 22 Dec 10

Just remember that Vince is just the same as any other MP, regardless of party. 2 faced and full of you know what. There is a quote (I can't remember who from) that says it all - "Anyone who wants to be an MP shouldn't be one, and anyone who doesn't want to be an MP, should be". Perhaps I'm being overly cynical, but now Vince has put his foot in it, as did Jessel before him. As have a number of tory, liberal, labour MP's.....

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Longstanding Local says...
10:56am Wed 22 Dec 10

Well it looks like the computer decided it was such a good comment that it had to be posted 5 times! The IT department at the R&T Times need to sort out their buffering and response times during heavy website traffic. Glad you all took the time to read it – 5 times!

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nlait says...
4:22pm Wed 22 Dec 10

The person I feel so sorry for in all of this is David Cameron.

He is, I think a thoroughly decent and honourable man, who is not only trying his level best to change this country for the better but trying to hold together a coalition of different personalities and indeed different wings of the Liberal Democrat and Conservative parties.

The Prime Minister deserves the full support of all his Cabinet colleagues and indeed support for his bold and radical agenda for the reform of public services in this country.

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jmtwix says...
7:49pm Wed 22 Dec 10

Poor old Vince seems to keep having 'senior' moments these days. Perhaps its time for him to step down from government and focus on his dancing and book writing. Maybe he could even spare a few minutes for his neglected constituents and contribute positively to the regeneration of Twickenham town.

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nlait says...
8:29am Thu 23 Dec 10

As some of you may know, Vince is appearing in the Christmas Special of the BBC Television programme Strictly Come Dancing.

Looking back over the events of the past few days for our MP, I can only say in the words of Craig Revel-Horwood, one of the judges on the BBC programme,

"A dis-AH-ster, darling"

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Scott Naylor says...
12:38am Sun 26 Dec 10

NLait says "Vince is appearing in the Christmas Special of the BBC Television programme Strictly Come Dancing". I watched it with a mixed group of friends and family, well won by John Barriman, but good fun with Fern Britton giving it her all. Quote from Craig on the panel following his very wooden performance: 'Vince is leaning to the right'! Never a more tongue-in-cheek comment said!

And another admission I was astounded by from Vince was 'I find it difficult to smile'.

And his dancing partner/trainer Erin said 'he is very serious'!!

Anyhow, after Anne Widdecombe, I wonder if politicians should not stay off this type if 'celeb', Vince is hardly that, and I wonder if he learnt his non-smiling technique from his ex Glasgow compatriot Gordon Brown who finds it equally difficult to smile.

Let's leave politics off the entertainment schedule shall we, the two truly don't mix!

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