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Cameron to defend record after Duncan Smith resignation Cameron attempts to heal Tory rifts over IDS resignation
(about 3 hours later)
David Cameron will defend his record later after Iain Duncan Smith resigned as work and pensions secretary and condemned cuts to disability benefits. Prime Minister David Cameron will later attempt to halt the civil war in his party caused by Iain Duncan Smith's resignation from the cabinet.
Mr Duncan Smith quit on Friday and said the government had focused benefit cuts on people who do not vote Conservative. He warned it risked dividing society. Mr Duncan Smith has warned the government risks dividing society with politically-motivated spending cuts.
But the PM will tell MPs he believes in "a modern, compassionate Conservatism". Mr Cameron will reject this in a speech to MPs as Downing Street denies claims of a rift between the PM and Chancellor George Osborne.
Number 10 has strongly denied reports of a rift between David Cameron and his chancellor following the resignation. The disability cuts Mr Duncan Smith quit over are expected to be axed.
Meanwhile, Mr Duncan Smith's replacement, Stephen Crabb, will tell the Commons on Monday that the proposed changes to disability benefits - known as Personal Independence Payments (PIP) - have been abandoned. The announcement on Personal Independence Payment cuts is expected to come from Mr Duncan Smith's replacement as work and pensions secretary, Stephen Crabb, in a Commons statement.
Opponents of the move said it could have affected up to 640,000 people, with recipients losing up to £100 a week. Mr Cameron is due to address MPs at 1530 GMT, when he is expected to use a statement on last week's EU summit to stress his commitment to "compassionate Conservatism".
On Sunday, Mr Duncan Smith told the BBC's Andrew Marr Show that he had supported a consultation on the changes to PIP but had come under "massive pressure" to deliver the savings ahead of last week's Budget. Former Tory leader Lord Howard urged MPs to "listen to what the prime minister has to say" and to "calm down".
The way the cuts were presented in the Budget had been "deeply unfair" because they were "juxtaposed" with tax cuts for the wealthy, he said. Mr Duncan Smith set out the reasons for his surprise resignation in an interview with the BBC's Andrew Marr, in which he said the way Mr Osborne had cut benefits in his Budget at the same time as cutting taxes for the better off was "deeply unfair" and that he had become "semi detached" from government.
He suggested the government was in "danger of drifting in a direction that divides society rather than unites it, and that, I think, is unfair". How damaged is George Osborne?
The BBC's assistant political editor Norman Smith said it was understood that Mr Cameron had urged Chancellor George Osborne to avoid any major controversy in the Budget so as to avoid fuelling discontent among Tory MPs ahead of the EU referendum. Ross Hawkins, BBC political correspondent
George Osborne: chief tactician and patron, a man whose word makes or wrecks careers.
That was the view of many Tory MPs for a very long time. Now, many doubt he will ever be their leader, or even the chancellor much longer.
It's not that they think David Cameron is poised to sack him or that he's about to resign, as Labour demand.
They simply believe a swift leadership election is highly likely whatever the result of 23 June's EU referendum.
If it does come that soon there will be, one predicts, a "genocide of the Cameroons and Osbornites".
A stubbornly enduring deficit, a tax credit U-turn, and the sheer numbers of MPs who have chosen to back a leave vote at the referendum have seen Osborne's authority leak.
A weekend of melodrama has - in one Tory MP's view - burst the dam.
Read more from Ross
Lord Howard played down Mr Duncan Smith's criticisms of government policy - but Conservative MP Sarah Wollaston said they were "very serious".
"Today, when David Cameron stands up, he has to reaffirm the message that led many people like myself to join the Conservative Party in the first place when he became leader," she said.
"Are we about social justice? Are we about spreading the burden fairly? We need to hear that very clear message today."
She suggested pensioner benefits - which the Conservatives pledged to protect in their manifesto - should be cut to make up the shortfall.
BBC assistant political editor Norman Smith said it was understood Mr Cameron had urged Mr Osborne to avoid any major controversy in the Budget so as to avoid fuelling discontent among Tory MPs ahead of the EU referendum.
Despite this, our correspondent said, Downing Street insists "the two men remain as close as ever", and have dismissed reports that the prime minister will seek to distance himself from Mr Osborne.Despite this, our correspondent said, Downing Street insists "the two men remain as close as ever", and have dismissed reports that the prime minister will seek to distance himself from Mr Osborne.
Analysis With the Personal Independence Payments (PIP) cuts, which prompted a furious reaction from opposition parties and some Conservative MPs, now expected to be cancelled, it is not yet clear if Mr Crabb's department will have to find cuts immediately to make the equivalent savings.
By Chris Mason, BBC political correspondent Number 10 has stressed that PIP will still have to be reformed in the future as the cost is "unsustainable."
As reactions to a Budget go, it doesn't get any worse for a government - a cabinet resignation just over 48 hours later, with several incendiary parting shots to boot, and a weekend of insults hurled by Conservatives, at each other, with gusto.
Today, then, the prime minister's challenge is clear: calm things down. David Cameron will tell the Commons he has long been a believer in what he will call "One Nation Conservatism".
The new Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb will make clear the proposed changes to PIP will now not happen. But that leaves the government either looking for cuts elsewhere or not saving as much as it hoped.
And it leaves David Cameron and the Chancellor George Osborne attempting to recover from the biggest challenge to their authority since the election.
Mr Duncan Smith also criticised the "arbitrary" decision to lower the welfare cap after the general election and expressed his "deep concern" at a "very narrow attack on working-age benefits" while also protecting pensioner benefits.
"It just looks like we see this as a pot of money, that it doesn't matter because they don't vote for us," he said.
Mr Duncan Smith spoke of his "love" for the Conservative Party and described claims he was trying to undermine Mr Cameron as "nonsense", saying he had had a "robust" conversation with the PM after telling him of his resignation.
He also insisted his "painful" decision was "not personal" against Mr Osborne.
A Number 10 spokesman said: "We are sorry to see Iain Duncan Smith go, but we are a 'one nation' government determined to continue helping everyone in our society have more security and opportunity, including the most disadvantaged."
In his Budget on Wednesday, Mr Osborne had said the government would be spending an extra £1bn on disability, but changes to disability benefits announced a few days earlier had suggested the government would save £4.4bn by 2020-21.
They included changes to PIP, which will replace Disability Living Allowance (DLA) in January 2017, that were expected to save £1.3bn a year and sparked outcry from opposition parties and some Tory MPs.
'Unsustainable'
On Friday, prior to Mr Duncan Smith's resignation, a government source said the planned changes would be "kicked into the long grass", but it is not yet clear if Mr Crabb's department will have to find cuts immediately to make the equivalent savings.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the BBC Mr Osborne should be "considering his position".Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the BBC Mr Osborne should be "considering his position".
"We don't want that £4bn taken from somewhere else within the welfare budget, that £4bn has to be put back in."We don't want that £4bn taken from somewhere else within the welfare budget, that £4bn has to be put back in.
"That means a real change in the Budget so it shouldn't be Stephen Crabb who comes to Parliament today, but George Osborne, to tell us how he is now going to reconfigure his Budget.""That means a real change in the Budget so it shouldn't be Stephen Crabb who comes to Parliament today, but George Osborne, to tell us how he is now going to reconfigure his Budget."
Tory backbencher Sarah Wollaston said Mr Duncan Smith's accusations were "very serious" and Mr Cameron may need "to signal that he is going to... revise the balance of where the burden falls for balancing the books".
Number 10 has stressed that PIP will still have to be reformed in the future as the cost is "unsustainable."
What are Personal Independence Payments?What are Personal Independence Payments?
Who would the disability changes impact?Who would the disability changes impact?