Vince Cable attacks ‘hated’ Tories over economy and migrants

 
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Vince Cable rocked the Coalition today with a ferocious attack on “the hated Tories” and a warning that the economic recovery hailed by George Osborne could implode.

He also unleashed a full-blown assault on the Conservatives over immigration, accusing them of “squawking with panic” at the arrival of foreign workers under the EU’s free movement of labour.

But Mr Cable’s speech at the Liberal Democrat annual rally in Glasgow also laid bare differences with leader Nick Clegg, who was placing more emphasis on the party gaining credit for its role in the Coalition and the economic revival.

The Business Secretary was, instead, scathing in his onslaught against the Conservatives, branding them “callous”, and raising the alarm over the economic recovery being too heavily based on a house price surge in London and the South-East and a revival in the City. Warning that his party had to fight Labour for the “mantle of radical progressive politics, Mr Cable was expected to say: “The challenge today is to reinforce that Liberal tradition which is at risk of being compromised by working with what, on Clydeside, are called ‘the hated Tories’. And that’s when people are being polite.” Reminding delegates that he was once a Labour councillor in Glasgow, the Cabinet minister also cast serious doubt on the Chancellor’s claim that the economy is turning the corner.

“It took many years of mistakes to create a financial crisis. It has taken five years to start to dig our way out,” he was due to tell the Lib-Dem faithful.

“We must not now settle for a short term spurt of growth, fuelled by an old-fashioned property boom and bankers rediscovering their mojo. We have seen it all before and there are already amber lights flashing to warn us of history repeating itself. The problem we have now is that the invaders are coming back. They have a bridgehead in London and the South-East of England. They must be stopped. Instead, we need sustainable growth.”

He warned that the Tories must not be allowed to “turn back the clock” on the economy. But his most barbed comments were reserved for a withering condemnation of the Tories over immigration, accusing David Cameron’s party of turning its back on being an “open, outward looking country”.

Amid concerns over a new influx of Eastern European workers when restrictions on Bulgarians and Romanians end next year, Mr Cable was expected to say: “Of course, the Tories are frightened by the public reaction to overseas workers.

“But there is something deeply opportunistic about people who lecture our workers, and the rest of Europe, about the need for free and flexible labour markets but then squawk with panic, when those free and flexible labour markets bring in foreign workers.”

He attacked the Tories’ green stance, condemning their “ludicrous war on windmills” and warned of the “lethal combination of low pay, rising rents and tighter benefit rules”.

Mr Cable’s vitriolic attacks will fuel speculation that he is positioning himself as better placed than Mr Clegg to do a deal with Labour if Ed Miliband emerges with the largest number of MPs after the 2015 election.

The Cabinet minister had earlier set himself at odds with Mr Clegg by dragging his feet on whether to vote for the leadership’s flagship motion on the economy, which praised the Coalition’s blueprint to get Britain firmly on the road to recovery. His defiant stance left the Deputy Prime Minister having to insist that there was not a damaging “feud” at the heart of his party. “There isn’t some great gunfight at the O.K. Corral going on here in Glasgow,” Mr Clegg told Sky News. He put his leadership on the block by speaking in the economic debate to persuade activists to back the motion.

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