Tag: Rachel Smith

Sir Vince Cable has ruled out ever leading his party into a formal coalition with a Jeremy Corbyn-led government, a move he says would be just as “appalling” as working as junior partners in an administration run by Boris Johnson. He says the latter are planning to leave the party in droves if Corbyn becomes prime minister. Speaking on the eve of his party’s annual conference, which opens on Sunday in Brighton, Cable suggests he has already held discussions with disaffected Labour members about joining what he has called a new “movement for moderates” on the political centre ground. “If you talk to a lot of Labour backbenchers they just can’t, they’re not willing under any circumstances, to countenance a Corbyn government. But if they formed a coherent group, I’ve said that whatever happens with our internal reforms, I want to work with them. “It may sound a bit deterministic but I think the very odd combination of numbers combined with the financial crisis and people out there saying the whole bloody place is going in flames. A year ago, before the last Lib Dem conference, Cable was on strikingly optimistic form, telling this newspaper he believed there was a decent chance he could become prime minister, so unpredictable was politics. He now seems to accept that the job of leader has proved more difficult than he expected. “I mean, I remember 10 years ago when I was acting leader I had two questions a week in prime minister’s questions. I am now allowed one every four weeks.