Vince Cable – Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor

Biography

Vince Cable has been MP for Twickenham since 1997, gaining this seat from the Conservatives. Vince is the Liberal Democrats’ Deputy Leader and Shadow Chancellor. 

Vince Cable read Natural Science and Economics at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University, where he was President of the Union, followed by a PhD at Glasgow University.

He worked as Treasury Finance Officer for the Kenya Government between 1966 and 1968. After lecturing at Glasgow University in economics he worked as a first Secretary in the Diplomatic Service in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (1974-1976). He was then Deputy Director of the Overseas Development Institute, which included a period working for the then Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, John Smith MP, as a Special Advisor. From 1983 to 1990 Vincent worked as Special Advisor on Economic Affairs for the Commonwealth Secretary General, Sir Sonny Ramphal.

From 1990 Vince worked for Shell International and from 1995 was Shell's Chief Economist. He has also been head of the economic programme at Chatham House and is a fellow of Nuffield College, Oxford.

He served as a Labour Councillor in Glasgow between 1971 and 1974, and contested the Glasgow Hillhead Division in the 1970 General Election. Vince joined the Social Democrat Party after its formation and went on to contest York for the SDP/Liberal Alliance in both the 1983 and 1987 General Election.

In 1992 he contested Twickenham for the Liberal Democrats squeezing the Conservative majority to just 6,121 and making Twickenham the most marginal Conservative/Liberal Democrats seat in the capital. In 1997, Vince was first elected to Parliament to represent Twickenham with a majority of 4,281.

His work on local issues includes: MRSA and hospital cleanliness; hospice funding and the Shooting Star children's Hospital; specialised nurses for chronic illnesses; and cancer screening. He has has attempted to get the Greenwich Judgment repealed and has sought to rectify difficulties in the Private Finance Initiative in schools (with the collapse of Jarvis). He has worked with residents' groups to secure tighter regulation of odour and river pollution by Thames Water at Mogden sewerage works. On transport, he has asked many questions in Parliament regarding night noise and numbers of flights at Heathrow; spoken at the Terminal 5 enquiry; and secured a debate to argue for greater weight for environmental factors in airport policy.

He chaired the All Party Police Group for 5 years and raised many police issues in Parliament such as gun crime, and more recently the "knives destroy lives" campaign with the Victims of Crime Trust based in Twickenham; he also launched a probe into Feltham Young Offenders Institution, contributing to less over-crowding and improvements in education and medical treatment. He fought the closure of post offices, locally and nationally.

Vince has been a member of the Treasury Select Committee and he is currently the Liberal Democrats' Shadow Chancellor. He has spoken on many issues such as Bank profits, Personal debt, and Equitable Life and The Telegraph recently described him as "The Government's most trenchant economic critic".

In March 2006 he was elected by fellow MPs as Deputy Leader . He is also Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups on Adoption, Pulmonary Hypertension, Police, Secretary of theVictims of Crime group and treasurer of the Internet Group.

Publications:

• Protectionism and Industrial Decline, 1983
• The New Giants: China and India, (Chatham House) 1994
• The World's New Fissures; The Politics of Identity (Demos) 1995
• Globalisation and Global Governance, (Chatham House) 1999
• Multiple Identities, (Demos) 2005
• Public Services: Reform with a Purpose, (Centre for Reform) 2005
• The Storm: The World Economic Crisis and What it Means, (Atlantic) 2009
• Tackling the fiscal crisis: A recovery plan for the UK, (Reform) 2009
• Free Radical: A Memoir (Atlantic) 2009

Experience

Lecturer at Glasgow University, first Secretary in the Diplomatic Service;Deputy Director of the Overseas Development Institute, Special Advisor on Economic Affairs for the Commonwealth Secretary General Shell International from 1990, Chief Economist from 1995

Parliamentary Experience

December 2003 to present: Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer; 2006 to present: Deputy Leader; October to December 2007: Acting Leader; 1997 to 2003: Shadow Trade & Industry Minister.

Interests

Cycling, horseriding, dancing,

Contact Me

Email: cablev@parliament.uk
Website: www.vincentcable.libdems.org.uk
Telephone: 020 8892 0215
Fax: 020 8892 0218
Address:

• 2a Lion Road
• TWICKENHAM
• TW1 4JQ