Vince Cable was married for 33 years to Olympia Rebelo before his second marriage. She was Mp’s first professional supporter.
Sir John Vincent Cable was the leader of the Liberal Democrats from 2017 to 2019, when he stepped down.
He was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Twickenham from 1997 to 2015, and again from 2017 to 2019. He was also the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation, and Skills from 2010 to 2015, during which time he was a Cabinet member.
In the 1960s, the politician served as an economic adviser to the Kenyan government, and in the 1970s and 1980s, he worked for the Commonwealth Secretariat. Cable studied economics at Cambridge and Glasgow universities. He went to those universities.
During this time, he was also a professor of economics at Glasgow University. Following that, he worked as Shell’s Chief Economist in the 1990s. Cable joined the Labour Party in the 1970s and later became a Labour councillor in Glasgow.
Throughout this time, Vince also served as a special adviser to John Smith, the Trade Secretary at the time. In 1982, however, he switched allegiances and joined the brand-new Social Democratic Party, which would later merge with the Liberal Party to form the Liberal Democrats.
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Vince Cable comes from a conservative family
Cable was born in York into a working-class family that identified as Conservative.
Vince was born into a traditional family.
His parents both worked in the chocolate industry: his father, Len, was a craftsman for Rowntree’s, and his mother, Edith, packaged chocolates for Terry’s.
Cable holds a Ph.D. in Economics
Cable attended Nunthorpe Grammar School, where he rose to the position of Head Boy.
Following that, he earned a degree in economics from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he had originally majored in natural sciences but later changed his focus. He was President of the Cambridge Union during the 1965 academic year.
In addition, he served on the Cambridge University Liberal Club’s committee, eventually rising to the position of President-elect. He did, however, leave the Liberal Party before assuming the presidency.
In 1973, he enrolled at the University of Glasgow to pursue his Ph.D. in economics.
While at Cambridge University, Vince Cable became involved in the same circles as members of the Cambridge Mafia.
Cable accepted a position as an Overseas Development Institute Fellow (also known as an ODI Nuffield Fellow) to work in Kenya after graduating from Cambridge University in 1966. He completed this task.
In 1973, he enrolled at the University of Glasgow to pursue his Ph.D. in economics. His dissertation addressed economic integration and industrialization.
Cable began his political career with the Liberal Party before switching to the Labour Party
Cable was a member of the Liberal Party while at university, but switched parties in 1966 and joined the Labour Party.
In 1970, he ran for Labour and tried unsuccessfully to replace the incumbent Conservative MP in Glasgow Hillhead, Tam Galbraith. Cable ran for election to the Corporation of Glasgow in the Partick West ward that same year, but he was unsuccessful.
He was elected as a Labour councillor for the Maryhill ward in 1971 and served in that capacity until 1974. In 1979, he ran for the Labour Party’s Hampstead candidate but lost to Ken Livingstone, who also did not win the seat.
Vince Cable was a member of Parliament during his tenure
At the 1997 general election, Cable was successful in unseating the incumbent Conservative MP in the Twickenham constituency, Toby Jessel, and was elected to the House of Commons.
Following that, he was successful in increasing his majority in the 2001 and 2005 elections, and he was even more successful in 2010. He was defeated and lost his seat in 2015, but he reclaimed it in a special election in 2017.
Cable was one of several Liberal Democrat Members of Parliament (MPs) who oversaw the party’s transition to economic liberalism and a more free market approach following the publication of the Orange Book.
This development, which some speculated played a role in bringing the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats together in 2010, was one of the reasons why the Orange Book was so divisive.
Late in 2005 or early in 2006, Vince Cable handed Charles Kennedy a letter signed by eleven of the Liberal Democrats’ twenty-three frontbenchers, including himself. The letter expressed doubts about Kennedy’s ability to lead the Liberal Democrats.
Cable was a signatory to the agreement. Charles Kennedy announced a leadership election on January 5, 2006, in response to criticism from his frontbench team and an ITN News story that documented his drinking. He committed to running for re-election.
Vince did this under the assumption that he would be allowed to keep his job. Despite this, on January 7, he submitted his resignation. Cable did not run for party leadership, instead lending his support to Menzies Campbell’s campaign.
In 2019, Vince Cable announced his retirement from politics
Cable led the Liberal Democrats to their best national electoral showing since the 2010 election in the European Parliament election in May 2019.
The Liberal Democrats won 15 seats. This happened following a campaign in which the party argued for the status quo and opposed Brexit. Following that, he declared his intention to leave politics entirely, and he stepped down as party leader on July 22, 2019, following the election of Jo Swinson.
He also resigned from his parliamentary seat in the 2019 general election.
Vince’s Place in the European Movement
Vince was elected as the European Movement’s vice president.
Cable’s appointment as Vice President of the European Movement was announced on July 2, 2022.
Olympia Rebelo, Vince Cable’s first wife, died of breast cancer
Cable’s first wife was Olympia Rebelo, a Kenyan raised in a Goan Roman Catholic family.
According to Cable’s account of their first meeting, they met “in the unromantic setting of a York mental hospital where we happened to be working as nurses during the summer break.” After having three children with him and completing her family, she received her doctorate in history from Glasgow University in 1976.
Vince Cable was married to Olympia Roebelo, who died of breast cancer.
Olympia was diagnosed with breast cancer immediately following the conclusion of the general election in 1987. After what appeared to be an effective course of therapy, the illness reappeared in the mid-1990s, just before the 1997 general election. She died in 2001, just a few months after the general election.
Rachel Wenban Smith married the retired public servant
In the year 2004, he married Rachel Wenban Smith.
Cable stated in January 2009 that he wears the wedding bands from both of his marriages while participating in the BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs.
Vince is extremely enthusiastic about ballroom dancing
Cable, who enjoys ballroom dancing, has long expressed his desire to appear on the BBC’s popular television show Strictly Come Dancing.
Vince appeared on the Christmas edition of Strictly Come Dancing.
He made his first appearance on the show in the Christmas 2010 episode, dancing the foxtrot with his partner Erin Boag. He delivered an outstanding performance, earning a total score of 36/40 from the judges, with top judge Len Goodman awarding him a perfect score.
Ann Widdecombe, a Conservative Party politician who previously served in Parliament, was the first elected official to appear on the show.
Cable’s Grandson Volunteers in the Community
Ayrton Cable, Cable’s eldest grandson, is a social activist and entrepreneur. His activism on food and water safety issues has gotten him a lot of attention.
Net worth: How wealthy is Vince Cable?
Vince Cable’s net worth is estimated to be around $3 million.
According to sources, Vince earns between $300,000 and $700,000 per year, though there isn’t much else known about him.
Childhood and Education
Cable was born in York into a working-class Conservative family. Cable’s father, Len, worked as a craftsman for Rowntree’s, and his mother, Edith, packed chocolates for Terry’s. He then went on to Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he studied Natural Sciences before switching to Economics. In 1965, he was President of the Cambridge Union. He was also a committee member and later President-elect of the Cambridge University Liberal Club, but he resigned from the Liberal Party before taking over as President. He was a contemporary of the Cambridge Mafia while at Cambridge .
Cable was appointed as an Overseas Development Institute Nuffield Fellow (ODI Nuffield Fellow) in Kenya in 1966, at the end of his studies at the University of Cambridge.
He earned a PhD in Economics from the University of Glasgow in 1973, focusing on economic integration and industrialization .
A career in economics
Cable lectured at the University of Glasgow and was a visiting research fellow at the London School of Economics’ Centre for the Study of Global Governance for three years until 2004. In 2016, Cable was appointed Honorary Professor of Economics at the University of Nottingham .
He worked as a Treasury Finance Officer for the Kenyan government from 1966 to 1968. In 1969, he travelled to Central America as a researcher on the newly formed Central American Common Market
Cable worked in the Foreign Office’s Latin American department as First Secretary under Hugh Carless from the early to mid-1970s. At the time, he was part of a CBI trade mission to South America, where he engaged in six months of commercial diplomacy. In the late 1970s, he was a special adviser to John Smith, who was Trade Secretary at the time. In the 1970s and 1980s, he served as an adviser to the UK government and then to Commonwealth Secretary-General Shridath “Sonny” Ramphal .
Cable attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 1983 in Delhi in an official capacity, witnessing “private sessions at first hand” involving Indira Gandhi, then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, Lee Kuan Yew, and Bob Hawke, among others. He also attended the summits in 1985, 1987, and 1989. During this time, he also contributed to the Brandt Commission, the Palme Commission, and the UN’s Brundtland Commission .
Cable authored and co-authored numerous publications in support of globalisation, free trade, and economic integration beginning in the 1980s, including Protectionism and Industrial Decline, The Commerce of Culture, and Developing with Foreign Investment.
From 1990 to 1997, Cable worked for the oil company Royal Dutch Shell, where he was Chief Economist between 1995 and 1997. His role at Shell was called into question after the company was accused of meddling in Nigerian politics during General Sani Abacha’s dictatorship.