Vince Cable hints at coalition with Labour and SNP

VINCE Cable has said that a Rainbow coalition involving his own party, Labour and the SNP “would be possible” and that he would not “rule it out” in the event of a hung parliament after May’s general election.

Vince Cable with apprentice John Devlin on a visit to Ingenza ltd, BioCentre in Midlothian yesterday. Picture: Ian Rutherford

The Business Secretary issued the clearest suggestion yet from a politician in a major party at Westminster that the SNP could be part of a post-election deal to form the next UK government.

“There is probably going to be an issue of minority government”, Mr Cable said during a visit to the Edinburgh HQ of the Green Investment Bank yesterday, when he launched a renewable energy programme as part of £60 million UK-wide funding.

He said: “When that happens there are all kinds of possibilities and any sensible party has to be willing to look at those possibilities.”

Mr Cable, when asked about the prospect of a coalition with Labour and the SNP, said the Lib Dems could work in a “businesslike way” with both parties in such an arrangement.

He said: “That kind of arrangement would be possible. I’m certainly wouldn’t rule it out.”

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