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Vince Cable: Lib Dem leader warns of looming Brexit 'disaster' Vince Cable: I can lead Lib Dems back to power
(about 1 hour later)
Sir Vince Cable is urging "sensible grown-ups" in other parties to join forces with the Liberal Democrats to prevent Brexit becoming a "disaster". Sir Vince Cable has said he can lead the Liberal Democrats back to power by offering a mix of "hope and realism".
In his first speech as party leader, he says tribal loyalties should be put to one side to ensure the UK remains in the single market and customs union. In his first conference speech as leader, he said he was "impatient for success" and had the vision and "grown-up" approach to "fill a huge gap in the centre of British politics".
He is also defending his call for a referendum on the outcome of Brexit talks. He called for higher taxes on foreign property speculators and second home owners to help tackle inequality.
"We believe the public have a right to change their mind," he will say. And he claimed Brexit would be an act of "masochism", leaving the UK poorer.
Mr Cable and deputy leader Jo Swinson were earlier greeted by cheering supporters as they arrived at the Bournemouth conference centre, where Mr Cable will shortly address the party faithful. The Lib Dems, he told activists in Bournemouth, were the "only real, undiluted pro-European" party in the country as he attacked the government's handling of the Brexit negotiations and what he said was Labour equivocation over whether to stay in the single market and customs union.
The 74-year old became leader this summer after Tim Farron's resignation in the wake of June's snap general election - in which the party failed to make the gains it had hoped for. He said his party must not be solely defined by their opposition to Brexit - but he repeated his call for the public to have the final say on whether the UK actually leaves or not through a further referendum.
The former business secretary has said his party members face the "fight of their political lifetimes" if they are to persuade the British public to reverse their decision last year to leave the EU. The 74-year old, who succeeded Tim Farron after June's general election, said the Lib Dems "did a lot of good and stopped a lot of bad" in their five years in coalition government with the Conservatives.
'Deeply worried' But the party - which increased its MPs from eight to 12 in June, but saw its vote share go down - had paid a "very high political price".
In his speech to the party faithful in Bournemouth, he will accuse the government of mismanaging Brexit negotiations and warn that "disaster looms" if it does not change tack and prioritise trade and jobs in the final settlement. "Trust was lost," he said. "For many voters, we still have to scrub ourselves hard to get rid of the smell of clearing up other people's mess."
Recognising that the Lib Dems alone cannot change the direction of government policy, he will urge Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn to "get off the fence" when it comes to putting the economy first in the talks. But he insisted the Lib Dems must see their future as a party of government again, with radical solutions to what he said were the main challenges facing the UK, including "deeply corrosive" inter-generational inequality, low economic productivity, skills shortages and the cost of living and housing for young people.
"What the people want, what the country now desperately needs is some political adults," he will say. On tuition fees, he said levels of student debt were a source of "real concern" and the party was ready to consider all options to improve the current system, including a graduate tax, in a wide-ranging review.
"That's you, that's us. Fortunately we are not alone. There are sensible grown-ups in the Conservative Party and Labour Party and the Greens. And beyond them are millions of people deeply worried about what is happening. Barriers to young people getting on the housing ladder must be removed, he said, with councils being able to borrow to build affordable homes and private sector investment in new garden cities.
And he vowed to end the "stranglehold of oligarchs and speculators in our housing market," with "fierce tax penalties on the acquisition of property for investment purposes, by overseas residents".
Drawing on his parents' experience of going to night school after work to improve their prospects, he said all young people should be given an endowment or learning account to fund further studies at any stage of their lives - to be paid through the "fair taxation of wealth".
Calling for a bigger programme of investment in the railways, broadband and other infrastructure, to be funded by government borrowing, he said his party would be both pro-enterprise and pro-worker, prepared to stand up to tech giants over corporate tax avoidance.
But the former business secretary said the Lib Dems would never be a "something for nothing" party, contrasting them with Labour, for whom he suggested "budgeting was a bourgeois hobby".
He said politics was often a long game and he had learnt from personal experience - including losing his first wife to cancer and losing his seat in 2015 - that success was "often laced with setbacks" and endurance was vital.
"What the country needs is hope and realism," he added. "In a Britain increasingly dominated by extremists and ideologues, I want us to fill the huge gap in the centre of British politics."
He said the Lib Dems had been proved right in their opposition to the Iraq war and their economic warnings prior to the 2008 banking crisis and they were right to take a stand on Brexit.
It was becoming ever clearer that the UK's exit from the EU was a "looming disaster" which could leave the UK poorer and weaker, he told party activists.
"There is another word for that - masochism. It isn't illegal. I am told some people pay good money to indulge in it. But unlike masochists, the Brexit ideologues usually envisage someone else bearing the pain.
"And that pain will mainly be felt by young people who overwhelmingly voted to Remain."
He urged members of other parties to join the Lib Dems: "There are sensible grown-ups in the Conservative Party and Labour Party and the Greens. And beyond them are millions of people deeply worried about what is happening.
"We have to put aside tribal differences and work alongside like-minded people to keep the single market and customs union, essential for trade and jobs.""We have to put aside tribal differences and work alongside like-minded people to keep the single market and customs union, essential for trade and jobs."
The Lib Dems did not make the progress they anticipated in June's election, in which their central offer was a second referendum, on any Brexit deal.
Sir Vince will say the Lib Dems, unlike other parties, are "totally united" on Brexit and he will reaffirm his commitment to another referendum.
"Let me be clear. This is not a call for a re-run - a second referendum - on Brexit. It is a call for a first referendum on the facts: when we know what Brexit means.
"We know that our call will, of course, be resented by Brexit fundamentalists and we will be denounced as traitors and saboteurs... but if their definition of sabotage is fighting to protect British jobs, public services, the environment and civil liberties, then I am a proud saboteur."
Both the Conservatives and Labour have rejected the idea of a second referendum, saying people have already spoken when they voted to leave by 52% to 48% and the focus should be on getting the best deal.
But Sir Vince will suggest the row between Boris Johnson and the head of the UK's statistics authority over the foreign secretary's claim that Brexit could deliver a financial windfall of up to £350m a week for the NHS illustrates that leading Brexit supporters are "afraid of the facts".
Arguing it would be legitimate to re-open the question of Britain's future in Europe if circumstances change, he will suggest leading Brexit supporters "now believe in the slogan of dictators everywhere: one person, one vote, once".
Ahead of Tuesday's speech, which will close the four-day conference, Sir Vince said he was optimistic about the party's future as a moderate force in the centre ground of British politics.