Thread: Iain Duncan Smith quits over planned disability benefit changes

This possibly won't mean much if you live outside the UK, but this Conservative MP is a much hated figure, as Work and Pensions secretary he was key to Tory plans that would see severely disabled people lose around £30 a week. A bill outlined in Osbornes recent budget, which saw tax cuts for the wealthy, and which is surely now destined for the bin. IDS was central to Tory planning, and says in his resignation that he could no longer be passive over cuts to the Disability Living Allowance, in what he says is a politically motivated policy.

The resignation is a big surprise and a huge victory for the many vocal opponents of this bill.

Mr Duncan Smith, who was the Conservative Party leader and Leader of the Opposition from 2001 to 2003, said in his resignation letter that the changes were "defensible in narrow terms, given the continuing deficit".

But he said they should have formed part of "a wider process" of finding the best way to focus resources on those most in need.

"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 said.

"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.

"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."

Iain Duncan Smith quits over planned disability benefit changes - BBC News