Cable and Swinson stitch up leadership pact for Lib Dems

Party veteran likely to take charge, but will step down in three years for younger MP running for deputy

SIR VINCE CABLE has agreed to step down as Liberal Democrat leader after three years to let Jo Swinson take over if he wins the leadership, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.

The party faces its second hunt for a leader in two years following the resignation of Tim Farron over the conflict between his faith and political career.

Ms Swinson, a newly elected MP and former minister, is understood to have hammered out the deal with Sir Vince at the end of last week after Mr Farron resigned, party sources have disclosed.

One source said Sir Vince had agreed to quit after two or three years if made leader. “Vince has the most experience and is what the party needs in the next couple of years. Everyone thinks that. But the future is Jo,” they added.

Ms Swinson, 37, said at the weekend that she would not stand for the leadership, leaving the way open for Sir Vince to become leader at the age of 74.

Ms Swinson has instead announced that she will stand for the party’s deputy leadership. She was elected unopposed yesterday evening.

The East Dunbartonshire MP said that she had often observed men “going for the promotion when they shouldn’t” as she vowed to run for the deputy leadership instead, saying it was “the right role for now”.

Sir Vince is expected to have to see off challenges from Sir Ed Davey and Norman Lamb, who were both ministers in the coalition government.

Announcing his candidature, Sir Vince – who won his Twickenham seat back at the general election after losing it in 2015 – denied that he had signed a “deal” with Ms Swinson and said there had been “no collusion of any kind”. However, he all but admitted that he could stand aside for Ms Swinson or another candidate “in three years’ time”.

Sir Vince told The Daily Telegraph: “There is no deal. She is doing it for her own reasons in her own time.

“She wants to be deputy leader for her own personal reasons. She is not part of an explicit ticket. It is a simple fact of life, if I decided in three years’ time to let someone else take over she is ideally placed to do it.”

Asked if he were standing for the full five years, Sir Vince said: “Potentially. Five years is almost geological given all the things that are happening.

“William Ewart Gladstone won an election and was prime minister at 82 – a bit older than me.”

Announcing his candidature, Sir Vince said he was ready to lead the party through a period of “chronic uncertainty”, adding that the “political winds are moving in our favour”.

Ms Swinson, who is married to former MP Duncan Hames and has a son, did not return requests for comment.

If Sir Vince wins he will be older than Sir Menzies Campbell, who quit in 2007 aged 66 amid claims that he was too old for the job and allegations – denied at the time by the party – that he wore sock garters under his trousers.

He would also be the oldest leader of a major party since Sir Winston Churchill, who was 80 when he stepped down as Conservative leader.

By the time of the next scheduled election in 2022 he would be 79 – older than anyone elected PM except Gladstone, who was aged 82 in 1892.

Sir Vince decided not to stand for the leadership in 2007 because he feared “irrational prejudice” about age would make him unelectable.

He was deputy leader of the Lib Dems from 2006 to 2010, and memorably taunted Gordon Brown for “going from Stalin to Mr Bean” in Prime Minister’s Questions in 2007.