Sir Vince: I’m the ‘alternative prime minister’ in waiting

SIR VINCE CABLE has insisted that he is a credible candidate to be prime minister and the Liberal Democrats could be the biggest party after the next election.

Despite having just 12 MPS, the Lib Dem leader said it needed to assert itself as a serious party of government.

Sir Vince said one of his key messages to voters would be “projecting the idea that I’m an alternative prime minister”.

Speaking ahead of the party’s annual conference in Bournemouth, he told The Andrew Marr Show on BBC One: “As leader of the third UK party, my job is to be the alternative prime minister.”

Asked if the Lib Dems could get a Commons majority, Sir Vince said: “It’s possible that we could break through. If British party politics starts to break up, if the traditional structures start to break up, and that could well happen, we are extremely well positioned with moderate, sensible policies.”

His comments were compared to a speech made by David Steel, the former Lib Dem leader who prematurely told activists in 1981: “Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government.”

Sir Ed Davey, Lib Dem MP for Kingston, told Sky News he believed “the vast majority” of the public would want Sir Vince as leader “if you put him up against Theresa May or Jeremy Corbyn”.