Cable: May a hypocrite on free trade

With Theresa May making a speech in defence of free markets, Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable said: “Theresa May professes to support free markets yet she is determined to drag Britain out of the world’s largest, most ambitious free market, the European single market. "The EU's four freedoms - of goods, services, capital and people - have underpinned British prosperity for the past 40 years. Yet the Conservatives' extreme Brexit will deprive us from all four, making us poorer. “Meanwhile, Conservative attempts to build new trade relationships in a post-Brexit world have been rebuffed with the Boeing row underlying just how hard it will be to strike a trade deal with America. “Far from thriving, business is struggling under Theresa May’s premiership as Britain slips ever further down the growth league. “I am proud that the Liberal Democrat policy of independence for the Bank of England twenty years ago - the subject of my maiden speech - has increased growth and prosperity. Sadly government policy is now pushing Britain in the opposite direction, towards fortresses and economic downturns.”