Business Secretary Vince Cable refused to vote on his department’s own legislation yesterday, mysteriously going AWOL when MPs were called to a division to slash employee’s rights.
The threshold for unfair dismisal claims was extended, meaning those unfairly sacked will no longer have redress if they have been employed for less than two years.
The proposal was originally put forward in October by David Cameron’s bonkers guru, Steve Hilton, with Vince slamming the plans as:
“unnecessary, based on no evidence and unlikely to improve labour market flexibility”
On 23 November he went on to claim that:
“We want to safeguard workers’ rights, while deregulating to reduce the onerous and unnecessary demands on businesses.”
Having made his view clear, Cable had the opportunity to stand up for what he believed in — by voting against the “Unfair Dismissal and Statement of Reasons for Dismissal (Variation of Qualifying Period) Order”. But despite voting on Employment Tribunals at 3:59pm, the business secretary failed to participate in the whipped vote just ten minutes earlier.
Rather than resign, Cable simply slinks off and hopes none of us will notice.
We’re sorry Vince, it’s time for us to let you go.
















