There was a quiet momentousness about Iain Duncan Smith’s speech in Birmingham today
– even before he started speaking. When IDS resigned the Tory leadership in 2003, he could barely have imagined that he would one day address his party as a leading member of the government.
Even a few weeks ago, he couldn’t have been sure that the coalition would implement the policy agenda that he developed during his time at the Centre for Social Justice. Yet here IDS was, receiving
a standing ovation for his efforts. What a difference seven years make.
And then to the speech itself. Much of it reverberated to the same reforming drumbeat that we’ve heard throughout this Tory conference. “This Conservative-led government has concern for the poor running through its DNA,” IDS intoned, before explaining how his Universal Credit is designed to help the least well-off in society.
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