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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Iain Duncan Smith resignation: No 10 scrambles to limit the damage – live | Iain Duncan Smith resignation: No 10 scrambles to limit the damage – live |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| 9.48am GMT | |
| 09:48 | |
| Phillipa Stroud: Duncan Smith's resignation is 'clarion call' | |
| Baroness Phillipa Stroud, who worked with Iain Duncan Smith for five years and is now executive director of the Centre for Social Justice, which Duncan Smith founded, said he quit because he felt Osborne’s budget hit the poor while giving tax incentives to the middle clases. She told Today: | |
| There are always judgement calls to be made in government, but I think at this point in time he felt that the balance of this particular package was not right, that it was not appropriate to be giving away tax incentives to the middle classes, freezing fuel duty and protecting universal benefits and pensioner benefits at the time at which you’re also making cuts to disability benefits. | |
| She indicated that Duncan Smith would have preferred to have found the savings from better-off pensioners, and that despite Downing Street having kicked the disability cuts “into the long grass”, they would still have to be made. | |
| The other thing that you have to be aware of is the way the Treasury score these savings, £1.3bn is still sitting on the DWP’s balance sheet, and unless Iain was going to be able to go for further savings from pensioners and universal benefits, they would be coming back for more from the same benefits – the ESA, disability benefits, JSA – all of these for vulnerable people. | |
| Stroud said Cameron should sit up and take notice: “This resignation should be viewed really as a clarion call, a call to the government, a social justice call to align their spending investment with their social reform narrative”. | |
| She added that she didn’t believe the timing of EU referendum had anything to do with the resignation, as “Iain in the last few weeks has not looked like a constrained man”. | |
| Updated | |
| at 9.51am GMT | |
| 9.29am GMT | 9.29am GMT |
| 09:29 | 09:29 |
| There’s plenty on this morning’s reading list for those who want the details – more of which are sure to emerge today – of how and why Duncan Smith chose to resign at the moment, and in the style, he did. | There’s plenty on this morning’s reading list for those who want the details – more of which are sure to emerge today – of how and why Duncan Smith chose to resign at the moment, and in the style, he did. |
| From the Guardian | From the Guardian |
| From the New Statesman | From the New Statesman |
| From BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg | From BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg |
| From ITV’s Robert Peston | From ITV’s Robert Peston |
| From the Telegraph | From the Telegraph |
| 9.07am GMT | 9.07am GMT |
| 09:07 | 09:07 |
| Disability cuts the 'last straw' for IDS | Disability cuts the 'last straw' for IDS |
| Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin, known to be close to Duncan Smith was on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning to discuss the resignation. | Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin, known to be close to Duncan Smith was on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme this morning to discuss the resignation. |
| He said Duncan Smith had “devoted his life to making the Conservative Party a party for social justice”, and that the minister’s six years as work and pensions secretary had found him in a “constant battle” with the Treasury, which had “generally taken a very short-term view on welfare reform”. | He said Duncan Smith had “devoted his life to making the Conservative Party a party for social justice”, and that the minister’s six years as work and pensions secretary had found him in a “constant battle” with the Treasury, which had “generally taken a very short-term view on welfare reform”. |
| Jenkin said proposed cuts to disability benefits in the Budget were the “last straw” for Duncan Smith and that the resignation is not about him but “young people and disabled people”. Here are some of his quotes in full: | Jenkin said proposed cuts to disability benefits in the Budget were the “last straw” for Duncan Smith and that the resignation is not about him but “young people and disabled people”. Here are some of his quotes in full: |
| I think the period of six years doing this job has been a constant battle with the Treasury who have generally taken a very short term view of welfare reform, generally always sought to cheesepare the welfare budget in advance of every autumn statement and every budget, not interested in the long term benefits of reforming welfare to get people back to work, actually rather derogatory of Iain’s plans, and I’m afraid I think what’s happened over this budget has been the last straw. | I think the period of six years doing this job has been a constant battle with the Treasury who have generally taken a very short term view of welfare reform, generally always sought to cheesepare the welfare budget in advance of every autumn statement and every budget, not interested in the long term benefits of reforming welfare to get people back to work, actually rather derogatory of Iain’s plans, and I’m afraid I think what’s happened over this budget has been the last straw. |
| The one thing about Iain is he is an extremely committed and principled person and I think the present Conservative regime have found that rather difficult to deal with. George Osborne’s budgets, as Iain points out in his letter, always tended to be very political, very tactical, very clever, protecting pensioners to the nth degree, to the point where we keep their fuel allowances and their free bus passes, however much it costs, but we carry on bashing young people and disabled people. This isn’t about Iain Duncan Smith it’s about young people and disabled people. | The one thing about Iain is he is an extremely committed and principled person and I think the present Conservative regime have found that rather difficult to deal with. George Osborne’s budgets, as Iain points out in his letter, always tended to be very political, very tactical, very clever, protecting pensioners to the nth degree, to the point where we keep their fuel allowances and their free bus passes, however much it costs, but we carry on bashing young people and disabled people. This isn’t about Iain Duncan Smith it’s about young people and disabled people. |
| Asked to what extent the message that “we are not in this together” will resonate, Jenkin responded: | Asked to what extent the message that “we are not in this together” will resonate, Jenkin responded: |
| A lot of colleagues will be extremely annoyed at this explosion but they will not be surprised, we’ve been led up the hill and down the hill by the chancellor of the exchequer, we were told they were going to reform tax credits, some of us warned him quite quickly that this was really a step too far, and then suddenly he had tonnes of money in the autumn statement and everything was fine and dandy, and now he’s run out of money again. | A lot of colleagues will be extremely annoyed at this explosion but they will not be surprised, we’ve been led up the hill and down the hill by the chancellor of the exchequer, we were told they were going to reform tax credits, some of us warned him quite quickly that this was really a step too far, and then suddenly he had tonnes of money in the autumn statement and everything was fine and dandy, and now he’s run out of money again. |
| I think people are getting a little impatient with the chancellor’s gyrations. The government is briefing against IDS now, that he was not able to stick to his own spending limits, but what about the chancellor’s own forecasts? They’ve gyrated around far larger figures. The high-handed and short-termist political approach the Chancellor has tended to take to the management of other departmental budgets has tested the patience of more than one minister. | I think people are getting a little impatient with the chancellor’s gyrations. The government is briefing against IDS now, that he was not able to stick to his own spending limits, but what about the chancellor’s own forecasts? They’ve gyrated around far larger figures. The high-handed and short-termist political approach the Chancellor has tended to take to the management of other departmental budgets has tested the patience of more than one minister. |
| 8.30am GMT | 8.30am GMT |
| 08:30 | 08:30 |
| Claire Phipps | Claire Phipps |
| The resignation of Iain Duncan Smith from the government electrified Westminster on Friday night and the fallout continues this morning. Downing Street is scrambling to replace him, and patch up the damage. We will be covering developments live today. | The resignation of Iain Duncan Smith from the government electrified Westminster on Friday night and the fallout continues this morning. Downing Street is scrambling to replace him, and patch up the damage. We will be covering developments live today. |
| Here are the main developments: | Here are the main developments: |
| 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. | 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 … | 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’. | 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’. |
| 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. | 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. | In the light of this, I am puzzled and disappointed that you have chosen to resign. |
| Related: 'A compromise too far': Iain Duncan Smith's resignation letter in full | Related: 'A compromise too far': Iain Duncan Smith's resignation letter in full |
| Related: Is Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation about disability cuts – or Europe? | Related: Is Iain Duncan Smith’s resignation about disability cuts – or Europe? |
| We’ll have all the developments today here on the live blog. | We’ll have all the developments today here on the live blog. |
| Updated | Updated |
| at 8.33am GMT | at 8.33am GMT |