Iain Duncan Smith comes striding into his office with the look of a man who still can’t quite believe his luck. Even the very un-Conservative artwork on the walls of his office can’t dampen his spirits. He explains that it was the choice of his predecessor (‘what was her name? Ed Balls’s wife…’). Yvette Cooper’s choice of paintings, it seems, is not long for this world. ‘I’ll have to get some pictures of battle scenes,’ he says — looking at his aides with a mischievous grin. They, too, seem unable to believe that they have finally made it to the Department for Work and Pensions.
It is an unlikely nirvana. Most ministers inwardly groan when they hear they are being sent to the Department of Work and Pensions — a vast bureaucracy which has more ‘clients’ (as it calls those on out-of-work benefits) than Ireland or Norway have people. But for years, Mr Duncan Smith has been preparing for this moment. When he arrived, one of his first tasks was to review a Freedom of Information request lodged by a pesky MP. He asked his permanent secretary who the offender was. ‘He replied, “It’s you, Secretary of State, you’ve been on our back now for six months about this. I’m wondering, can I just brief you on this and end this issue?”’
Duncan Smith and his team have been feasting on data the government never released before which, they argue, shows how Labour’s approach to welfare failed. He is sitting in his office with his special adviser, Philippa Stroud, who also runs the Centre for Social Justice, a think-tank Duncan-Smith founded six years ago. He alternates between enthusiasm, and gulping at the size of the task now in front of him. At one point he even offers to swap places and join The Spectator.
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