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Brexit voters are RIGHT to be angry because they’ve been forced into ‘c**p jobs’, Vince Cable admits in conference speech
The Lib Dem boss used his party conference speech to extend a hand of friendship to Leave voters
VINCE Cable today made a last-ditch bid to win over Britain’s 17million Leave voters - admitting they are right to be worried about immigration and “crap jobs”.
The Lib Dem boss warned his fellow Remainers not to be snobbish towards Brexit voters and insisted he supports measures to help regions left behind by globalisation.
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And he said the EU risks falling apart if Eurocrats don’t impose tough reforms to make it work better and end the current open borders regime.
In what’s likely to be his last party conference speech as Lib Dem leader, Sir Vince also:
- Insisted there IS time for a second referendum on Brexit before we leave the EU in six months
- Said Jeremy Corbyn should quit as Labour leader if he won’t back a fresh vote on Brexit
- Mocked Boris Johnson’s personal troubles and compared him to Donald Trump
- Claimed Brexiteer politicians got an “erotic spasm” from the idea of quitting the EU
- Invited moderate MPs from other parties to quit and join the Lib Dems
- Opened up about experiencing racism via his first wife
Sir Vince, 75, has previously caused anger by suggesting that Brexit voters were racist who were “obsessed” with immigration.
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But in today’s speech in Brighton, he extended the hand of friendship and admitted the pro-EU side can’t dismiss their concerns.
He said: “Brexit still appeals to many hearts, if not to many minds.
“The Brexit campaign stoked the worst prejudices about race and immigration... But that was the Leave campaign. Not Leave voters.
“We must sell better the benefits immigration has brought to this country workers who pay taxes to support the welfare state and an ageing population; and who are crucial to everything from the NHS – where there are 100,000 vacancies even today – to the high-tech industries.
“But if we want to be heard, we have to listen.
“We have to recognise that although overall immigration has not depressed wages, there is a strong public perception that it has done so in particular places and particular occupations, or exacerbated pressures on housing and services.
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“So we need to invest in those parts of the country which feel ‘left behind’ and ensure that public funding keeps track of population growth, so public services can keep up with demand.
“And I don’t accept the idea that it is some form of racism to want immigration to be managed like other parts of the economy.”
Sir Vince admitted Britain had been swept by social change which for many workers have “meant a move from skilled and respected jobs to crap jobs”.
He added: “Across Europe, one in three members of the public express anti-European sentiment.
“Rather than let that grow, we must take on the those who got Britain and the EU into the Brexit mess.
“And we cannot do this by going on about the virtues of the status quo.”
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The Lib Dem boss said Britain will have to reform the current system of free movement of people so it works better for the continent as a whole.
Sir Vince laid into his Brexiteer opponents, saying: “For the ‘True Believers’ – the fundamentalists – the costs of Brexit have always been irrelevant.
“Years of economic pain justified by the erotic spasm of leaving the European Union.”
But he embarrassed himself by mispronouncing the key phrase as "exotic spresm" - an aide claimed he ";misspoke".
And comparing Boris Johnson to the US President, he added: “Their cynical disregard for the truth, their treatment of women, and their inflammatory divisive language make Boris and Donald the Terrible Twins of the Rabid Right.”
But he expressed sympathy for Theresa May, as he claimed she is trapped trying to enforce a policy she doesn’t actually believe in.
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Turning his fire on the Labour chief, Sir Vince said: “It is far easier for Jeremy Corbyn to be brave on Brexit. This is his big chance. He used to be the campaigning backbencher who joined us in opposing the Iraq War and defending civil liberties.
“In his new role he has kept his hands clean and his image polished by hiring hard left bootboys and girls to do his dirty work. They do the bullying and the intimidation of colleagues and he claims not to know.
“He indulges anti-Semitic bigots and pleads ignorance. But the nastiness shouldn’t be allowed to obscure his abstention from the biggest issue of the day.
“Next week hundreds, thousands, of Labour members and MPs will demand he changes course and backs a public vote on the final deal.
“If Jeremy Corbyn will not say, ‘I will support a People’s Vote and I will fight Brexit,’ Labour members should wave him goodbye.”
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The Lib Dem conference has seen speeches by the likes of Gina Miller, Jo Swinson and Nick Clegg calling for a second referendum to stop Brexit.
The party has also proposed new policies including a so-called “tax on Christmas” which would see a levy placed on gifts, and the abolition of business rates.
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Sir Vince is expected to step down as leader at some point in the next year - although an aide today insisted his speech is not a “valedictory address”.
He is likely to back a woman, possibly Ms Swinson or Oxford MP Layla Moran, as his successor.
A senior Lib Dem source said: “It would be a benefit to the party to have a female leader in the near future.”
I faced racism from my own family, Vince Cable reveals
VINCE Cable today opened up about the pain of facing a racist backlash from his own family when he met his first wife.
The Lib Dem leader was married to Olympia, who came from a Kenyan Asian background, for 33 years before she died in 2001.
But when they first got together, his relatives were so angry they refused to talk to him, he told the party conference today.
Sir Vince said: “I have personal experience of racism.
“I embarked on a mixed marriage in this country when racism was rife.
“My wife and children were being denounced as people whose very presence here would lead to rivers foaming with blood.
“And I was thrown out of the parental home.”
Sir Vince didn’t speak to his father Len for several years after the falling-out, a Lib Dem source told The Sun.
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