Closing summary
I’m winding up this live blog now after some unexpected late-night Friday Westminster developments.
Here are the key points:
- Iain Duncan Smith has resigned as work and pensions secretary, saying that cuts to disability benefits were “indefensible” in the context of a budget that boosted the fortunes of the better-off.
-
In a blistering letter to the prime minister that was also widely viewed as an attack on the chancellor, George Osborne, he pointed the finger at the Treasury for placing “too much emphasis on money-saving exercises”:
I am unable to watch passively while certain policies are enacted in order to meet the fiscal self-imposed restraints that I believe are more and more perceived as distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest.
Too often my team and I have been pressured in the immediate run up to a budget or fiscal event to deliver yet more reductions to the working-age benefit bill …
I hope as the government goes forward you can look again … at the balance of the cuts you have insisted upon and wonder if enough has been done to ensure ‘we are all in this together’.
- In a reply notable for its lack of warmth, David Cameron said he was “puzzled and disappointed” by Duncan Smith’s decision, pointing out that they had worked together on the changes to disability benefits:
That is why we collectively agreed – you, No 10 and the Treasury – proposals which you and your department then announced a week ago. Today we agreed not to proceed with the policies in their current form and instead to work together to get these policies right over the coming months.
In the light of this, I am puzzled and disappointed that you have chosen to resign.
- The resignation came as news emerged that proposed reductions in PIP payments to disabled people – which the chancellor had said would save £4.4bn over the course of this parliament – would not go ahead in their current form.
- There was speculation that the unexpected move by Duncan Smith – a prominent Brexit supporter – had more to do with the government’s internal divisions over the coming EU referendum than with genuine discord over cuts to disability benefits. But others pointed to longstanding tensions between the Treasury and the DWP over how and how fast such cuts should be implemented.
- No successor at the DWP has yet been announced but Andrew Sparrow suggests some runners and riders here.
That’s it for tonight’s coverage, as Friday has well and truly tipped into Saturday.
The live blog will be back in a few hours for more fallout, reaction and analysis – and possibly a new cabinet minister. Thanks for reading and for your comments.
Who will replace IDS at the DWP?
David Cameron is expected to do a significant reshuffle after the EU referendum (assuming he wins – if he loses, it will be someone else’s reshuffle). There is no reason to think he will bring that forward now, and so it is likely he will respond to Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation with a minimalist reshuffle, promoting someone to fill the gap.
But who?
Cameron may well be tempted to go for someone safe. Greg Clark, the bright, technocratic, consensus-seeking communities secretary would be a sound choice. He could be trusted to defuse to controversy about PIP, and also get to grips with the administrative problems bedevilling universal credit. Other possibilities might include Liz Truss, the environment secretary, or Amber Rudd, the energy secretary.
Cameron would then have to fill a vacancy at communities, or environment or energy. Will Priti Patel get her chance? As employment minister, she attends cabinet, but she is not technically cabinet rank. Putting her in the cabinet would ensure that one Brexit minister (Duncan Smith) was replaced with another, which could be useful in terms of assuring Brexit Tories that they are being treated fairly. Appointing her would also increase the cabinet’s women/ethnic minority count, always a bonus. And it would have the added advantage, perhaps, of partially silencing one of Vote Leave’s most vocal spokeswomen, because having to master a new brief would give Patel less time to fight the EU referendum battle.
Another possible replacement for Duncan Smith would be Mark Harper, the chief whip. He is a former disability minister and was well respected by the disability lobby. Like Clark, he could also be trusted to dismantle the Tory rebellion over PIP cuts.
There is also one much bolder step that Cameron could take. Boris Johnson has been promised a cabinet job once his term as London mayor is over and, given that he has just over a month in office to go, Cameron could just about justify giving him a department to run now. The cabinet job promise was made before Johnson decided to campaign for Britain to leave the EU, and now he is certainly seen as a hostile force by Cameron. But perhaps Cameron may gamble that forcing him to get to grips with the complexities of the welfare system might help to neutralise him in some way.
It is very, very unlikely (not least because Johnson is fairly hopeless at detail, and a DWP detail is paramount), but stranger things have happened.
Updated
Many believed Iain Duncan Smith had finally found his niche – following his failed stint as Conservative leader – when he took over at the DWP, my colleague Ashley Cowan writes:
“A round peg in a round hole,” a BBC profile described the newly appointed work and pensions secretary at the time ……
“Lacking in emotion” was the charge many of Duncan Smith’s critics used against him as he found his “niche” … Over a six-year period he presided over radical and controversial reforms to Britain’s welfare state. And he attempted to create a legacy for himself at the department: universal credit.
The Guardian’s editorial on the resignation pulls no punches from its very first line:
Iain Duncan Smith brims with conviction when it comes to his own virtue.
It goes on:
Somehow, in his own mind the bedroom taxes, benefit caps and endless freezes could always be squared with the personal mission he described in his parting missive to David Cameron – to “greatly improve the life chances of the most disadvantaged people in this country”.
The same cognitive dissonance was at work in his decision to resign in protest over the budget cuts to personal independence payments (PIP), something he had acquiesced in when it was official policy, before walking out just as the government began to U-turn.
Read it in full here:
Cameron’s letter to IDS – snap analysis
The day after Boris Johnson announced that he was backing Brexit, David Cameron launched a withering attack on him in the Commons, forensically and wittily rubbishing Johnson’s suggestion that a vote to leave the EU could result in Brussels offering better terms.
It was a very powerful put-down although, according to some reports, Number 10 later concluded that it might have been better not to have antagonised Johnson in that way.
Cameron’s letter this evening is very similar. Although overtly polite, it contains two pointed and rather aggressive criticisms of Duncan Smith.
1) Cameron criticises Duncan Smith for resigning over proposals which he had already accepted
He writes: “We collectively agreed – you, No 10 and the Treasury – proposals which you and your department then announced a week ago.”
Duncan Smith has a response to this. In his letter he says what made the cuts unacceptable was George Osborne’s decision to include them in a budget that also included tax cuts for the wealthy (which had not been announced last Friday). But Duncan Smith cannot answer the second point. Which is:
2) Cameron says Duncan Smith is resigning over proposals that have been shelved.
“Today we agreed not to proceed with the policies in their current form and instead to work together to get these policies right over the coming months,” Cameron says.
He goes on to say he is “puzzled and disappointed” by Duncan Smith’s stance. That’s a diplomatic way of saying he thinks Duncan Smith has lost the plot.
The rest of the letter contains only a cursory reference to Duncan Smith’s ministerial achievements, no direct reference to universal credit (his core legislative achievement, at least in his view) and no reference to his status as a former Conservative party leader.
Overall, this will not go down well. Cameron could have made a public attempt to minimise the animosity generated by Duncan Smith’s resignation, but he has probably intensified it.
The reaction from those working within the sectors most affected by the cuts handed down by Duncan Smith’s DWP will be interesting to watch.
Child Poverty Action Group is one of those quickest off the mark. Alison Garnham, its chief executive, says:
This is a resignation letter from a work and pensions secretary like no other …
The government’s cuts to benefits and tax credits for the disabled, ill, children and the low-paid, in effect, have funded tax cuts worth billions which overwhelmingly benefit the better-off. These have been cuts made out of choice, not of necessity.
What’s really worrying is the future of the government’s flagship Universal Credit policy – just as its roll-out is about to be accelerated …
Rather than ‘we’re all in it together’, the legacy of the tax and benefit changes made since 2010, according to independent projections by the IFS, may end up being the biggest rise in child poverty in a generation – from 2.3 million children in poverty in 2010 to 3.6 million by 2020.
The government as a whole and his successor in particular need to address these issues.
Five factors that explain what Duncan Smith’s resignation is really about
Ministerial resignations are rarely straightforward affairs. Normally matters of policy personality and timing all play a part. What really explains Iain Duncan Smith’s decision to resign?
1) Often it is best to take what politicians say at face value
Duncan Smith says he is resigning because he cannot accept the cuts to the personal independence payment (PIP), and his argument on this sounds sincere. He says the cuts are “a compromise too far” (meaning a compromise with austerity too far). He says he cannot justify the cuts if they are part of a budget that also cuts taxes for the rich.
Duncan Smith has questioned the way cuts have been targeted in the past; before the election he let it be known that he thought there was a case for putting the squeeze more on wealthy pensioners, and means-testing the winter fuel payment, so it is not as if his concerns are 100% new. But nevertheless it is odd that he has decided to resign now, when his department announced the PIP cuts a week ago today.
2) Partly it’s about the PIP cuts being ‘the final straw’
Resignations are not normally triggered by a single event, and Duncan Smith’s decision to go is the culmination of a feud with the Treasury that has been going on for years. It has been focused on universal credit, Duncan Smith’s flagship policy at the Department for Work and Pensions, and and a measure that is currently being rolled out nationwide.
Universal credit is supposed to simply the welfare system, by combining six benefits in one, but, crucially, it was also intended to increase the incentive to work, by ensuring that working always pays more than staying on benefits. However, under pressure from the Treasury,the mechanics of universal credit (tapers, the work allowance etc) have repeatedly been changed, with the effect of making the benefit less generous and the work incentives much weaker. A recent report from Civitas said universal credit had been watered down to such an extent that “if creating an incentive to work is the goal, the present system [ie, what was in place before universal credit] meets that goal more effectively”.
Duncan Smith’s key legislative achievement has been undermined. He does not mention this directly in his resignation letter, but he alludes to it when he says: “There has been too much emphasis on money saving exercises and not enough awareness from the Treasury, in particular, that the government’s vision of a new welfare-to-work system could not be repeatedly salami-sliced.”
3) It’s personal too – and Duncan Smith has had it with Osborne
Duncan Smith blames George Osborne and the Treasury for undermining universal credit. But partly this is personal too. Relations between the two have never been entirely harmonious since Matthew d’Ancona published his book about the coalition in which he quoted Osborne telling allies that he thought Duncan Smith was “just not clever enough”.
4) The EU split is a factor
Duncan Smith’s resignation is not directly related to the EU referendum. But he is one of the six members attending cabinet who is backing Brexit, and for him fighting the EU is one of the great causes of his political career. Normally a sense of collective enterprise helps cabinet ministers to stick together even when they disagree strongly, but what the EU referendum has done is loosen those bonds.
It may not have triggered Duncan Smith’s resignation, but the fact that he and Cameron have been publicly feuding for the last month over the EU almost certainly made it easier for him to walk out.
5) The desire to jump before he was pushed may have been a factor too
David Cameron is expected to hold a significant reshuffle if he wins the EU referendum (if he loses, it will be another prime minister’s reshuffle) and Duncan Smith was widely expected to be moved or sacked at that point. In the last parliament Cameron tried to get him to move from DWP to Justice. On that occasion Duncan Smith said no, and his status as a former party leader, helped keep him in post, but after more than six years in office this summer, he would no longer be in a particularly strong position to resist. Sensing that his career at DWP was coming go an end anyway, he may have decided it was best to go on his own terms.
That’s the second intriguing letter of the evening, then. Plenty to analyse here, too:
This is also extraordinary... Can't recall a PM quibbling with reasons for a cabinet resignation https://t.co/XT3OCzzQpH
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) March 18, 2016
Why does @David_Cameron mention in letter to IDS accepting resignation that they're on different sides of EU debate? pic.twitter.com/JHzY0zTf0b
— Robert Peston (@Peston) March 18, 2016
Just as there has not, in my 15 yrs of political hackery, been a resignation letter like IDS's, there hasn't been as snippy a PM's response
— Tim Shipman (@ShippersUnbound) March 18, 2016
Oh & btw 'I am puzzled & disappointed by your resignation' is Whitehall-speak for 'I could happily kill you with my bare hands'
— Gaby Hinsliff (@gabyhinsliff) March 18, 2016
Cameron letter: full text
Dear Iain,
Thank you for your letter this evening.
We are all very proud of the welfare reforms which this government has delivered over the last six years, and in which you have played an important part.
As a government, we have done a huge amount to get people into work, reduce unemployment and promote social justice. There are now more people in work than ever before in our country’s history, with 2.4 million more jobs created since 2010.
I regret that you have chosen to step down from the government at this moment. Together we designed the personal independence payment to support the most vulnerable and to give disabled people more independence.
We all agreed that the increased resources being spent on disabled people should be properly managed and focused on those who need it most.
That is why we collectively agreed – you, No 10 and the Treasury – proposals which you and your Department then announced a week ago. Today we agreed not to proceed with the policies in their current form and instead to work together to get these policies right over the coming months.
In the light of this, I am puzzled and disappointed that you have chosen to resign.
You leave the government with my thanks and best wishes. While we are on different sides in the vital debate about the future of Britain’s relations with Europe, the government will, of course, continue with its policy of welfare reform, matched by our commitment to social justice, to improving the life chances of the most disadvantaged people in our country, and to ensuring that those who most need help and protection continue to receive it.
Yours, David
Cameron response: 'I am puzzled and disappointed'
Here is the prime minister’s letter in response to Iain Duncan Smith’s letter of resignation:
Cameron letter to IDS pic.twitter.com/YRovw2SQJn
— Ross Hawkins (@rosschawkins) March 18, 2016
Updated
BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg is tweeting about the timeline of events that led up to the resignation. It’s a long stream of tweets and I’ll just reproduce her words here so as not to fill up the entire live blog, but do take a look at her Twitter feed:
Stand by for what I’ve been told was the timetable that led to IDS resignation.
Treasury tells DWP they have to get long term PIPs changes ready for Budget so the savings can be included – DWP reluctantly agrees.
Story about PIPS changes breaks on Friday, campaign groups, opposition and some backbench MPs start to get worried.
On Sat, IDS finds out Budget will also give CGT cuts to better off at the same time as cuts to disability benefit cuts for individuals.
IDS even more cross, but keeps quiet.
After Budget, opposition and backbenchers start to speak out against PIP changes.
Thursday, Treasury and Number 10 pressure IDS’ team and DWP to get out and defend the changes, saying they must not back down.
Late Thurs night, Morgan hints that there might be changes altho DWP been told to stand firm, even more grumpiness.
Govt sources say late today that policy dumped, ‘into the long grass’ – IDS furious they are dumping on policy they forced him to adopt.
He decides to quit, PM fails to persuade him to stay – explosive letter drops, ‘all in this together’?
That version of events may/will be denied in next few hours, but that’s what I can piece together from good sources close to it tonight.
Another revised Saturday newspaper front page lands.
Daily Mail: IDS resigns in benefits fury
Updated Daily Mail front page:
— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) March 18, 2016
IDS resigns in benefits fury#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/E5AiNTgTHC
Priti Patel – another Brexiter, incidentally – is leading the running to succeed Duncan Smith at the DWP, according to Ladbrokes’ odds. Any thoughts, readers?
@Claire_Phipps Latest odds from Ladbrokes... pic.twitter.com/gDRoBF6SQF
— Ladbrokes Politics (@LadPolitics) March 18, 2016
Robert Peston, ITV’s political editor, says the resignation “is one of those ‘oh my god’ moments in politics”.
Writing on Facebook, Peston goes on:
Here is why he is so angry: his long cherished hope of reforming the welfare system is – in his view – being corrupted by the imperative of shoring up Tory support for George Osborne and David Cameron, and of reducing the deficit as an ideological imperative.
But, Peston reports, despite the dropping of the proposed PIP cuts, there will be further reductions to come:
Why? Well, there would be a pretty big hole in George Osborne’s budget if he simply loses the £1.2bn a year he was banking on from the PIP reform.
Duncan Smith’s resignation letter – you can read it in full here – is one of those that really does bear a thorough poring-over.
The final line gives an extra little twist of the knife:
I hope as the government goes forward you can look again, however, at the balance of the cuts you have insisted upon and wonder if enough has been done to ensure ‘we are all in this together’.
Slightly cagey headline from the Times. Clickbait doesn’t really work in print, because you can read the name directly underneath:
Saturday's Times front page:
— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) March 18, 2016
Cabinet minister quits over budget cut#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/mdRmyr8XZn
Here’s the response from Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, Owen Smith:
IDS resigning is a humiliating blow for a Tory Government that's in disarray over their unfair Budget. My reaction: pic.twitter.com/B5BGhHhkAg
— Owen Smith (@OwenSmith_MP) March 18, 2016
My colleagues Anushka Asthana and Heather Stewart have been assessing what role Duncan Smith’s support for Brexit played in his decision to resign at this time, and in such a potentially damaging way for the prime minister and, in particular, the chancellor:
Downing Street will be convinced that this resignation is entirely focused on Europe. Some people think Duncan Smith had been looking for any excuse to resign, arguing that his behaviour over the referendum has been aggressive since day one. His dismissal of government documents outlining the risks of Brexit as “dodgy dossiers” certainly caused ripples of anger in No 10 and No 11 …
The implication is clearly that this was all about the EU. It certainly seems that a Tory war over Brexit caused Duncan Smith to fire his gun. But among officials at DWP and the Treasury, weapons have been drawn for some time …
In 2015, the welfare secretary privately admitted that forcing reform in the context of cuts was not what he had set out to do. Still, as a Conservative minister understanding the need for austerity, he had never publicly criticised his colleagues.
The EU fight seems to have changed his mood. Duncan Smith’s resignation letter did not pull its punches. Instead, it struck at the heart of what is meant to be Osborne’s great selling point: his deft political touch.
Read the full article here:
Farron echoes Corbyn call for Osborne to go
Tim Farron, leader of the Liberal Democrats, says Duncan Smith was right to go:
It is quite right that Iain Duncan Smith has resigned over this heartless plan to cut disability benefits, but the true mastermind of the changes, George Osborne, should also be considering his position.
It is clear that these cuts had nothing to do with the right level of support for people with disabilities, and everything to do with George Osborne’s self-imposed spending target.
Now his plan has come unstuck he should follow Iain Duncan Smith, for once, and do the decent thing.
Labour MP Chuka Umunna isn’t buying the disability cuts line:
IDS resigning has everything to do with the EU and nothing to do with welfare – why wait this long after causing misery to so many to resign?
Others are pointing to this news that the DWP had this week for the third time been ordered to release papers from the early stages of planning for universal credit, setting out potential risks.
The universal credit scheme is so closely entangled with Duncan Smith – his personal pet project for some years now – that his departure will raise many questions about what happens next to what was supposed to be a seismic reshaping of the benefits system.
The timing of Duncan Smith’s revelation has meant some reshaping of the front pages of Saturday’s newspapers – here are a few of those quickest off the block.
The Telegraph: IDS quits in fury over welfare cuts
Saturday's Telegraph front page:
— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) March 18, 2016
IDS quits in fury over welfare cuts#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/ELiVgzRZFI
Financial Times: Duncan Smith quits over benefit cuts
Updated FT front page:
— Nick Sutton (@suttonnick) March 18, 2016
Duncan Smith quits over benefit cuts#tomorrowspaperstoday #bbcpapers pic.twitter.com/58YFiKWBS7
The Sun: IDS quits
Saturday's Sun: "Spotter Bother" pic.twitter.com/6USgyWfxU6 #BBCPapers #tomorrowspaperstoday (via @suttonnick)
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) March 18, 2016
Updated
On the BBC News at 10, political editor Laura Kuenssberg calls the resignation a “slap in the face” for the government – and particularly for George Osborne just 48 hours after his budget.
Corbyn: 'Osborne should resign too'
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, responding to Duncan Smith’s resignation, says the chancellor should follow him out of the door:
The resignation of Iain Duncan Smith reveals a government in disarray and a chancellor who has lost the credibility to manage the economy in the interests of the majority of our people.
The Budget has exposed George Osborne’s record of profound unfairness and economic failure. Not only must the cuts to support for disabled people be abandoned, but the government must change economic course.
The chancellor has failed the British people. He should follow the honourable course taken by Iain Duncan Smith and resign.
Sky News political editor Faisal Islam says Duncan Smith has not yet had a response to his letter from the prime minister
(And – worse! – David Cameron hasn’t even tweeted about it yet.)
IDS letter was sent to the PM this afternoon, and understand as of 15 minutes ago he hadn't received a reply
— Faisal Islam (@faisalislam) March 18, 2016
Islam also reports that friends of Duncan Smith are “furious” that his departure is being linked to his Brexit stance.
We haven’t yet had a response from the Labour leadership, but in the meantime here is a Labour MP with a … striking image of the effect of the IDS resignation on Osborne’s sugar tax moment:
IDS has poured a bucket of shit all over that dead cat... https://t.co/TcOcCTSZeE
— Jonathan Reynolds MP (@jreynoldsMP) March 18, 2016
Who will (want to) be the new secretary of state for work and pensions?
Tory backbencher Jacob Rees-Mogg has just told the BBC that it was a blow for the government to lose such a “substantial figure”:
Duncan Smith had been “as important a welfare secretary as I can think of”, Rees-Mogg went on:
I think it is deeply concerning that a man of the stature and standing of Iain Duncan Smith should be pushed into this position.
I confess I am extremely worried about the way he has phrased it and it is hard to paint a favourable gloss on it.
Although the Treasury is back-pedalling on the PIP cuts, those proposed for ESA are still slated to go ahead:
IDS resignation letter. This part clearly applies equally to ESA Work-Related Activity Group cuts, not yet reversed. pic.twitter.com/cpCfhDoGDS
— Jonathan Portes (@jdportes) March 18, 2016
Tory MP Nadine Dorries suggests Duncan Smith still backed those ESA cuts, at least:
Stunned at IDS resignation letter. I was about to vote against ESA cuts when he sought me out - he personally and angrily begged me not to.
— Nadine Writes Books (@NadineDorriesMP) March 18, 2016
Told me he was angry I was rebelling because it was his bill and reflected on him and now he resigns bcse disability cuts a step too far.
— Nadine Writes Books (@NadineDorriesMP) March 18, 2016
Updated
Before news earlier this evening that the Treasury was preparing to kick the reductions in PIP payments “into the long grass”, both the prime minister and chancellor signalled that they were wobbling on the issue.
In Brussels on Friday evening, David Cameron told the Guardian:
A number of reviews have been done, a lot of work has been done and that is why these proposals have been put forward.
As the chancellor said, but I will repeat, we will be discussing this with disability charities and others and make sure we get this right.
George Osborne also insisted on Friday the government would “protect the most vulnerable” and ensure that it got the proposals “absolutely right”, before it emerged that the plans would be elbowed on to the backburner.
Just hours before Duncan Smith’s resignation, the Treasury signalled a retreat from its controversial cuts to disability benefits, amid a mounting rebellion from Conservative backbenchers.
A growing number of Tories showed concern over reductions in PIP, which the chancellor said would save £4.4bn over the course of this parliament.
The pause in the plans is a humiliating blow for the Osborne, who had hoped to use his eighth budget on Wednesday to burnish his credentials for the Conservative leadership.
The changes to the way PIP assessments work were announced the previous Friday by the Department for Work and Pensions. The Treasury stressed that the figures included in the budget were the DWP’s work – but DWP insiders complained that they were bounced into publishing the proposals without the time to build support.
Yet another Tory MP – Peter Bone this time – lavishes praise on his departing colleague. You’d almost think no Conservative MPs backed cuts to disability benefits.
IDS has always been a man of conviction! Tonight, yet again he put the country first.
— Peter Bone (@PeterBoneMP) March 18, 2016
Former Tory donor and deputy chairman Lord Ashcroft – no longer a fan of David Cameron, it’s worth pointing out – thinks Duncan Smith has done the right thing:
Respect to Iain Duncan Smith for resigning from the Cabinet over cuts to disability benefits within a budget that favoured the better off.
— Lord Ashcroft (@LordAshcroft) March 18, 2016
My colleague Tom Clark will not be the only person to be making the calculation that this resignation could have more to do with the looming referendum on EU membership than a heartfelt defence of disability benefits.
IDS is, of course, pro-Brexit, though rather less centre-stage in the Tory Leave camp than Boris Johnson and Michael Gove have been. Not this evening, though…
Weirdest walk out ever. IDS stays in Cabinet when disab. cuts were on, and walks out in protest when cancelled. About Europe, not benefits
— Tom Clark (@guardian_clark) March 18, 2016
The resignation letter – which is being described by many as one of the most devastating to be written by an exiting cabinet minister – contains a barely veiled attack on chancellor George Osborne and his priorities. Here’s a key section:
“Throughout these years, because of the perilous public finances we inherited from the last Labour administration, difficult cuts have been necessary. I have found some of these cuts easier to justify than others but aware of the economic situation and determined to be a team player I have accepted their necessity.
You are aware that I believe the cuts would have been even fairer to younger families and people of working age if we had been willing to reduce some of the benefits given to better-off pensioners but I have attempted to work within the constraints that you and the chancellor set.
I have for some time and rather reluctantly come to believe that the latest changes to benefits to the disabled, and the context in which they’ve been made are, a compromise too far. While they are defensible in narrow terms, given the continuing deficit, they are not defensible in the way they were placed within a budget that benefits higher earning taxpayers. They should have instead been part of a wider process to engage others in finding the best way to better focus resources on those most in need.
I am unable to watch passively while certain policies are enacted in order to meet the fiscal self imposed restraints that I believe are more and more perceived as distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest. Too often my team and I have been pressured in the immediate run up to a budget or fiscal event to deliver yet more reductions to the working age benefit bill.”
(My emphases in bold, by the way.)
Updated
As my colleague Ashley Cowan writes, Tory MP Andrew Percy was the leader of brewing revolt in the Commons this week over personal independence payments (PIP) to disabled people, warning the chancellor that the political unease was greater than felt at the time of last autumn’s successful revolt over plans to cut tax credits. He accused Osborne of hitting “exactly the wrong people”.
The MP for Brigg and Goole said earlier this week:
This is about need, it is not about welfare reform. These people have these needs. These needs are not going away and therefore the payments should not go away.
The difference on this to tax credits is, although difficult to sell and wrongheaded, people who lost out from them would eventually be compensated through the system. Whereas that is not the case [with PIP payments]. They will be permanently dis-benefited. That is where it is much harder for a lot of [Conservative] colleagues to swallow than the tax credit changes.
Updated
Responses to Iain Duncan Smith’s announcement have already turned towards the EU referendum.
Here is Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation letter in full.
“Changes to benefits to the disabled and the context in which they’ve been made are a compromise too far.”
Iain Duncan Smith has resigned from cabinet over the disability cuts in this week’s budget. Read Rowena Mason’s take on this breaking news event.
“In an excoriating parting shot at the chancellor, the work and pensions secretary complained of pressure to ‘salami slice’ welfare and a failure to spread the burden of spending curbs.”
