Vince Cable debates on Channel 4

A television debate between Alistair Darling, George Osborne, and Lib Dem Vince Cable saw the three battle it out for the nation’s hearts and minds.

Vince Cable was crowned “King Vince” by The Guardian, after the Westminster village and Twitter was rife with comment about just how good his performance was.

The Guardian said: “Cable’s performance tonight shows that the Lib Dems are going to be a powerful force in this election campaign.”

He has topped a number of polls rating the three performances and the event, hosted by Channel 4, was seen as a precursor to the Leaders’ Debates which are to take place when Gordon Brown calls the election.

Vince Cable: predicted the recession

Vince Cable, the Liberal Democrat Shadow Chancellor who has been recognised for his prediction of the recession, has warned that Labour’s pre-election Budget fails the people of Britain.

“Britain needed a Budget that gave us honesty in spending and fairness in tax. Alistair Darling has given us neither,” Vince said.

“Labour is in denial, while the Conservatives are talking tough to cover up the fact that they only offer more of the same.

“Today’s budget wasn’t honest.

“The Chancellor is incapable of coming clean about where spending cuts will have to fall. Rather than being honest with people about what the Government can and cannot afford, the Chancellor would rather let others indiscriminately shave departmental budgets.

“And the Budget did nothing to make Britain a fairer society.

“We’re campaigning for fair taxes, lifting millions of people out of income tax altogether. But today’s Budget, by confirming the freeze in personal allowances, means everyone will see a real increase in their income tax bill.

“Rather than forcing the nationalised banks to lend to good British businesses, Labour have chosen to create a feeble quango to arbitrate between bullying banks and their small business clients.

“Today’s Budget shows even more clearly that Britain needs real change.”

To watch Vince’s response to the Budget, click here.

Labour has created a tax regime where the poorest pay a bigger slice of their income than the richest. Polluters are allowed to get away with harming our environment without paying for the clean-up. And we lose as much as £40 billion a year to tax dodgers.

This has to change.

The Conservatives tell us that we are all in this together whilst promising tax cuts for millionaires and then say that there might be tax rises for everyone else.

So much for their kind of change.

Today, we have pledged to put a transformation of Britain’s unfair tax system at the heart of the Liberal Democrat campaign for a fairer Britain.

Our plans will see tax cuts for millions of people, paid for by closing tax loopholes, making polluters pay and introducing a ‘mansion tax’ on homes worth over £2m.

For more details of our policy proposals, see here. And for a video from the launch, see here.

What we are proposing is a radical rebalancing of the tax system with fairness at its centre. This is a real and genuine change that would make a huge difference to the lives of people up and down the country.

Best wishes,

Nick Clegg MP
Leader of the Liberal Democrats

Vince Cable MP
Shadow Chancellor and Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader