Cable, fomerly business secretary in the coalition government, officially replaces Tim Farron as LibDem leader today.
The 74-year-old used his first speech as leader to emphasise the party’s commitment to remaining in the European single market and customs union warning that Theresa May wants to “take Britain back to the 1950s while Jeremy Corbyn wants to take Britain back to the 1970s”.
Cable said: “It will soon become clear that the government can’t deliver the painless Brexit it promised. So, we need to prepare for an exit from Brexit.”
He added: “I will offer an optimistic, alternative agenda to power the country into the 2020s and beyond.
“We have a government that can’t govern and an opposition that can’t oppose.
“Labour and the Conservatives have formed a grand coalition of chaos, driving through a hard Brexit which would deliver a massive blow to living standards.”
Read PF’s 2016 interview with Vince Cable here
