Cable warns of “mass bankruptcy”

Vince Cable, the economic spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, has warned that the UK could soon be dealing with a trend towards “mass bankruptcy and repossession”.

Mr Cable’s comments came after official figures showed that a record number of people entered voluntary bankruptcy last year as a result of serious debt management difficulties.

He suggested that an increasing number of consumers around the country are finding themselves with little option but to use bankruptcy as a way out of their debt problems.

With this in mind, Mr Cable called for action to be taken to ensure that people in the worst financial trouble can access the kind of support that they need to avoid debt management disaster.

“As the credit crunch further impacts on the cost of borrowing, we need to wake up to the very real possibility of mass bankruptcy and repossession across the country,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Conservatives economic spokesperson Stephen Hammond has blamed the prime minister Gordon Brown for the rising level of voluntary bankruptcies witness in the UK last year.