Cable was born in York, to a working-class Conservative-supporting family. His father, Len, was a craftsman for Rowntree's, and his mother, Edith, packed chocolates for Terry's. Cable attended Nunthorpe Grammar School where he became Head Boy. He then attended Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge, where he initially studied Natural Sciences and later switched to Economics. He was the President of the Cambridge Union in 1965. He was also a committee member and later President-elect of the Cambridge University Liberal Club, but he resigned from the Liberal Party before taking up the office of President. Whilst at Cambridge, he was a contemporary of the Cambridge Mafia.