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Interview: Vince Cable

The Liberal Democrats’ sound money man

Simon Nixon

Wednesday, 28th November 2007

Simon Nixon talks to Vince Cable, the Lib Dem Treasury spokesman and acting leader, who the City admires as one of the few politicians to talk sense about Northern Rock

Unlike the Tories, who have not always looked comfortable over Northern Rock, Cable has been setting the agenda by offering his own solutions. His insistence that the government should nationalise the Rock if it can’t find a bidder to repay its £25 billion loan is arguably what Darling should have done at the outset. As it is, taxpayers will pay a heavy price for the Chancellor’s dithering. Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Money, the preferred bidder, is demanding the Treasury stump up £11 billion for three years secured against the Rock’s mortgage book just as the housing market looks set to fall off a cliff. The alternative of a period of public ownership, out of reach of blackmailing shareholders, would allow the Treasury to focus on getting its money back. But Darling is now so compromised that he would be unlikely to survive such a humiliating U-turn.

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