John
12-21-2010, 04:33 PM
Vince Cable is "right to be embarrassed" after he made private remarks in which he threatened to bring the Government down by resigning, Nick Clegg said.
The Deputy Prime Minister used the phrase more than once during a joint end-of-year press conference with Prime Minister David Cameron after the Business Secretary was secretly recorded making the comments.
Mr Cable told undercover reporters from the Daily Telegraph that the situation with the coalition is "like fighting a war" and that he could use the "nuclear option".
He also told the reporters - posing as constituents in his Twickenham constituency - that he believed Mr Cameron wants to reduce or scrap altogether the winter fuel allowance for pensioners.
Asked by journalists about the comments, Mr Clegg said: "He is embarrassed by what has happened and he is right to be embarrassed."
The Deputy PM went on: "My view and his view is that coalition government, any government, can only work effectively over a period of time if the disagreements, which of course exist in a coalition of different parties working together, that those differences are thrashed out in private and then you come to a common solution and then you are united in taking that forward as a coalition government.
"That is the way this Government is going to work."
Mr Cameron added: "He (Mr Cable) was very apologetic at Cabinet and I agree with what Nick said, that he had every reason to be (embarrassed).
"Some of the things he said about winter fuel payments is not true, but do we in this coalition have disagreements and arguments and then work them out in private and then make an announcement in public? Yes we do. I would say judge the coalition on the record of what it has done in terms of the economic programme, the public service reforms, the changes we are making."
Earlier, Mr Cable also won support from Chancellor George Osborne, who told the Commons that his Lib Dem colleague was a "powerful ally" in Government.
Source - Yahoo News.
The Deputy Prime Minister used the phrase more than once during a joint end-of-year press conference with Prime Minister David Cameron after the Business Secretary was secretly recorded making the comments.
Mr Cable told undercover reporters from the Daily Telegraph that the situation with the coalition is "like fighting a war" and that he could use the "nuclear option".
He also told the reporters - posing as constituents in his Twickenham constituency - that he believed Mr Cameron wants to reduce or scrap altogether the winter fuel allowance for pensioners.
Asked by journalists about the comments, Mr Clegg said: "He is embarrassed by what has happened and he is right to be embarrassed."
The Deputy PM went on: "My view and his view is that coalition government, any government, can only work effectively over a period of time if the disagreements, which of course exist in a coalition of different parties working together, that those differences are thrashed out in private and then you come to a common solution and then you are united in taking that forward as a coalition government.
"That is the way this Government is going to work."
Mr Cameron added: "He (Mr Cable) was very apologetic at Cabinet and I agree with what Nick said, that he had every reason to be (embarrassed).
"Some of the things he said about winter fuel payments is not true, but do we in this coalition have disagreements and arguments and then work them out in private and then make an announcement in public? Yes we do. I would say judge the coalition on the record of what it has done in terms of the economic programme, the public service reforms, the changes we are making."
Earlier, Mr Cable also won support from Chancellor George Osborne, who told the Commons that his Lib Dem colleague was a "powerful ally" in Government.
Source - Yahoo News.