In one of the most extraordinary political interviews of recent times, Iain Duncan Smith has warned that the government ‘is in danger of drifting in a direction which divides society rather than unites it.’ He repeatedly, and pointedly, argued that in drawing up policy the Tories have to have a care for those who don’t, and will never, vote for them—a remark that everyone in Westminster that will see as being directed against George Osborne.
Explaining his resignation, IDS that he was ‘semi-detached’ from decisions taken in government, and that his department was being forced to find savings because of the welfare cap which had been ‘arbitrarily’ lowered by the Treasury. He declared that what made the disabled benefits cuts so unacceptable to him was that they appeared in a Budget that also cut tax for the better off.
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