Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith QUITS Cabinet with vicious swipe...

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• published: 19 Mar 2016
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Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith QUITS Cabinet with vicious swipe at George Osborne over shambolic disability benefit cut U-turn. Iain Duncan Smith has sensationally resigned from the Cabinet in protest over the disability benefit with a devastating parting blast at George Osborne. The Work and Pensions Secretary said cuts to disability benefits demanded by the Chancellor were 'not defensible' alongside the tax breaks for the wealthy in this week’s Budget. 'I am unable to watch passively whilst 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,' he wrote. The former Tory leader and standard-bearer for the Eurosceptic Right of the party admitted he wanted to cut benefits enjoyed by wealthy pensioners, but these plans were blocked by the Chancellor and the Prime Minister. '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,' he wrote. In a swipe at Mr Cameron, Mr Duncan Smith also said he would have preferred cuts to benefits for well-off pensioners - rather than deep cuts to those of working age. 'They (the cuts) are not defensible in the way they were placed within a Budget that benefits higher earning taxpayers.' The resignation follows six years of tension and wrangling between the two men at the top table of Government. Mr Duncan Smith believed the Chancellor was too sly and devious in the way he went about balancing the nation’s books. 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. It is therefore with enormous regret that I have decided to resign. You should be very proud of what this government has done on deficit reduction, corporate competitiveness, education reforms and devolution of power. 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’.