Vince Cable

The Right Honourable Sir Vince Cable MP PC
Official portrait, 2017
Leader of the Liberal Democrats
In office 20 July 2017 – 22 July 2019
Deputy	Jo Swinson
President	The Baroness Brinton
Preceded by	Tim Farron
Succeeded by	Jo Swinson
Acting 15 October 2007 – 18 December 2007
President	Simon Hughes
Preceded by	Menzies Campbell
Succeeded by	Nick Clegg
Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills President of the Board of Trade
In office 12 May 2010 – 12 May 2015
Prime Minister	David Cameron
Preceded by	The Lord Mandelson
Succeeded by	Sajid Javid
Deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats
In office 2 March 2006 – 26 May 2010
Leader	Menzies Campbell Nick Clegg
Preceded by	Menzies Campbell
Succeeded by	Simon Hughes
Member of Parliament for Twickenham
In office 8 June 2017 – 6 November 2019
Preceded by	Tania Mathias
Succeeded by	Munira Wilson
In office 1 May 1997 – 30 March 2015
Preceded by	Toby Jessel
Succeeded by	Tania Mathias
Liberal Democrat portfolios
1999–2003	Trade and Industry
2003–2010	HM Treasury
2015	Business, Innovation and Skills
2017	HM Treasury
2019	Health and Social Care
Personal details
Born	John Vincent Cable (1943-05-09) 9 May 1943 (age 81) York, England
Political party	Liberal Democrats (1988–present)
Other political affiliations	Liberal (before 1965) Labour (1966–1982) SDP (1982–1988)
Spouses	Olympia Rebelo ​ ​ (m. 1968; died 2001)​ Rachel Smith ​ ​ (m. 2004)​
Children	3
Relatives	Ayrton Cable (grandson)
Alma mater	Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University of Glasgow
Signature
Website	Official website
Cable's voice from the BBC programme Desert Island Discs, 18 January 2009[1]
^ Office vacant from 12 May 2010 to 7 January 2015. ^ Office vacant from 12 May 2010 to 7 January 2015.

Sir John Vincent Cable (born 9 May 1943)^[2] is a British politician who was Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019. He was Member of Parliament (MP) for Twickenham from 1997 to 2015 and from 2017 to 2019. He also served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills from 2010 to 2015.

Cable studied Economics at Cambridge and Glasgow, before working as an economic adviser to the Government of Kenya in the 1960s, and for the Commonwealth Secretariat in the 1970s and 1980s. During this period, he also lectured in economics at Glasgow. He later served as Chief Economist for Shell in the 1990s. Initially active in the Labour Party, Cable became a Labour councillor in Glasgow in the 1970s, during which time he also served as a special adviser to then-Trade Secretary John Smith. In 1982, however, he defected to the newly formed Social Democratic Party, which later amalgamated with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats.

After standing unsuccessfully for Parliament four times, Cable was elected for Twickenham in 1997. He was quickly appointed the Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson, and was later elected as Deputy Leader in 2006. Cable resigned from both of these positions in May 2010 after being appointed as Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in the coalition government.^[3] He lost his seat in 2015, although later regained it in 2017. Cable subsequently stood in the leadership election to replace Tim Farron, and was elected unopposed.^[4]

In May 2019, Cable led the Liberal Democrats to their best national electoral performance since the 2010 election, gaining fifteen seats in the European Parliament election. This followed a campaign in which the party ran on an anti-Brexit platform.^[5][6] He subsequently announced his intention to retire from politics, and stood down as leader on 22 July 2019, upon the election of Jo Swinson; he stood down from Parliament at the 2019 general election.

On 2 July 2022, Cable was announced as Vice President of the European Movement.^[7]