Ukip deserves to 'be taken seriously' after by-elections surge, says Vince Cable - Telegraph.co.uk

He told the BBC Radio Four: "They want to be taken seriously and I think they should be taken seriously.

"I certainly don't think we should be insulting the voters or indeed insulting Ukip. If they want to be taken seriously we should engage with them on the big issues."

Mr Cable continued: "For example they are arguing at the moment as I understand it that we should have a massive increase in defence spending, we should have massive tax cuts and balance the budget at the same time.

"It is far from clear how you do those things but let's challenge them and get them to explain it."

Mr Cable said the results last week were "disastrous for both of the Coalition parties and particularly for mine" but he hoped that the party would be "judged in 2015 on the overall performance in the five year period".

Last week Ukip leader Nigel Farage used the results to proclaim that his Eurosceptic party was now "the third force in British politics".

He said: "What you can say over the last six months is that we have established ourselves, now, currently as the third force in British politics."