VINCE Cable believes electoral reform will be “the price Labour pays” for any coalition deal with the Liberal Democrats.
Speaking exclusively to GB News, Mr Cable warned the current political system wasn’t working because it was “not good for the country”.
He also claimed Nigel Farage should have been allowed into Parliament and called for moves to shut out smaller parties to end.
Commenting on what he thinks will happen at the next election, he told Gloria De Piero: “Well, I think the premise of the argument is that the Labour Party may not get an overall majority. I would expect that because the Tories are pretty ruthless. I mean, even if they flounder for the next year or so, with the way they conduct elections, as we painfully know in the past, there’s a ruthlessness. And Labour may be overestimating their support at the moment so we could get into a hung Parliament situation.
“I think the Lib Dem approach would be to be supportive. And you know, the price, if you put it like that, will almost certainly be electoral reform. Not simply because it’s good for us, but because the system is just not working well. We’re getting Governments that are unrepresentative, in which small parties, not just us, but the Greens, are basically shut out of parliamentary life, which is not good for the country. Farage should have been in Parliament arguing his case, not sitting outside. Absolutely they should be there.
“So I think that would be the price. I I think the Labour Party understands that. They’ve adopted it as part of their party policy and I think it would be in their manifesto so it wouldn’t then need a referendum. It’s a question of how much they prioritise it. We may get a Blair type landslide, in which case they may take the view that we don’t need anyone.”
Predicting a good election for the Lib Dems he continued: “I think that the Dems will make headway. We’ ll win seats in the next election you know, 20 possibly. Which would be a big recovery even on the basis of a relatively slow overall rating.”
Mr Cable also reflected on his time working alongside the Tories during the Liberal Democrat coalition under David Camneron.
Revealing who he found hardest to work with he said: “Well, some of them were difficult. I wouldn’t say they were friends exactly, but I got on very well with David Willetts. Great guy, we worked very well together. And I managed to get on well with George Osborne who was actually in private rather more companionable than he is in public.
” I think of all the Tories the most sort of aggressive in a way was Eric Pickles. But I never quite got to the bottom of what the problem was. Michael Gove has matured, I think, and become quite an interesting politician. He’s more open minded, but at the time he was , you know, a real clever dick. Always felt he had to score the last point in any conversation and always had to try and get his way. He always had to have the last word in any Cabinet discussion anyway.”
Appearing on Gloria Meets on GB News, Mr Cable also spoke about his decision to “cover up” a stroke he had while leader of the Lib Dems.
“I had this instinct that once politicians talk about their own illnesses people write them off,” he admitted. “I mean clearly that was a mistake.”
