Vince Cable rules out Lib Dem-Labour electoral pact

Vince Cable said the Liberal Democrats have ruled out forming an electoral pact with the Labour party, warning the summer snap election would be a choice between “a very very bad deal or no deal at all” in the UK’s Brexit talks.

Commenting on the EU negotiations, the former business secretary told the BBC Today programme:

I think there are two plausible outcomes in two years’ time. One is we get a very very bad deal and the other that we get no deal at all and finish up crashing out of the European Union with disastrous economic consequences.

And if that is the case, there needs to be a strong party in parliament which is willing to say: ‘No this is not acceptable, and this issue needs to be re-opened’.

Sir Vince, who will contest the Twickenham seat he lost in 2015, said it was important in the next parliament there is “a substantial block of MPs” to hold the government to account, but he ruled out a pact with the Labour party led by Jeremy Corbyn.

He also made clear part of his motivation for standing again was a desire “to set the record straight and win back seats that we lost”.

“2015 was a terrible election for us, despite the fact that I and my colleagues I think made a contribution to the country within the coalition and I think we want to set the record straight and win back the seats that we lost”.