Iain Duncan Smith
Encyclopedia
George Iain Duncan Smith (born 9 April 1954; often referred to by his initials "IDS") is a British
Conservative
politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
and was previously leader of the Conservative Party
from September 2001 to October 2003. He was first elected to parliament at the 1992 General Election
as the MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, a seat which he has held ever since.
Duncan Smith was born in Edinburgh
, Scotland
, and served in the Scots Guard from 1975 to 1981, with service in Northern Ireland
and Rhodesia
. He joined the Conservative Party
in 1981, and was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1992. When William Hague
resigned as Conservative Party leader in 2001, Duncan Smith won the subsequent leadership election
, bolstered by the support of Margaret Thatcher
and his Eurosceptic
ideology. Duncan Smith was the first Roman Catholic to serve as Conservative Party leader, and the first born in Scotland
since Arthur Balfour
.
In 2003, the Conservative Party passed a Vote of No Confidence in Duncan Smith, as many considered him unable to return the party to government. He resigned, and was succeeded as party leader by Michael Howard
. As a backbencher, Duncan Smith founded the Centre for Social Justice
, a centre-right
think tank
independent of the Conservative Party and became a published novelist. On May 12, 2010, Conservative leader and Prime Minister
David Cameron
appointed Duncan Smith to serve in the cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
.
, Scotland, in 1954. He is the son of W. G. G. Duncan Smith
, a Royal Air Force
Group Captain highly decorated in World War II, and Pamela, a ballerina; they married in 1946. Duncan Smith's great-grandmother was a Japanese woman, Ellen Oshey, who married Pamela's grandfather, merchant seaman Captain Samuel Lewis Shaw. He is thus one-eighth Japanese (Yonsei
). Other relatives include British Canadian CBC
wartime broadcaster Peter Stursberg
, whose 2002 book No Foreign Bones in China records the story of the Anglo-Japanese couple, and his son, current CBC vice-president Richard Stursberg
. Through Captain Shaw, Duncan Smith is also a distant relative of George Bernard Shaw
, the Irish playwright and socialist.
until the age of 14 and was subsequently educated at HMS Conway
, a naval training school on the isle of Anglesey
(where he allegedly played rugby union
in the position of fly-half alongside Clive Woodward
at centre) until he was 18. He then also attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
.
He joined the Scots Guards in 1975, with his six-year service including spells in Northern Ireland
and Rhodesia
, where he served as aide-de-camp
to Major-General Sir John Acland
On leaving the Guards, Duncan Smith joined the Conservative Party and took up employment at the General Electric Company in 1981. He married Elizabeth "Betsy" Fremantle, daughter of the 5th Baron Cottesloe
, in 1982. The couple have four children.
, Duncan Smith contested the constituency of Bradford West
, where he was defeated by the incumbent Labour Party
MP Max Madden
. At the 1992 general election
, he stood in the constituency of Chingford
(where the Conservative MP, Norman Tebbit
, was retiring), and was elected to parliament. (Following boundary changes, Duncan Smith's constituency became Chingford and Woodford Green in 1997.)
A committed Eurosceptic
, Duncan Smith was a constant thorn in the side of Prime Minister John Major
's government in 1992–97, disrupting Major's pro-European agenda at the time (something that would often be raised during his own subsequent leadership when he called for the party to unite behind him).
Duncan Smith remained on the backbenches
until 1997, when the new Conservative leader William Hague
brought him into the Shadow Cabinet
as Shadow Social Security Secretary. In 1999, Duncan Smith was moved to replace John Maples
as Shadow Defence Secretary.
. On 13 September 2001, Duncan Smith won the Conservative Party leadership election
. He had initially been seen as an outsider candidate, but his support was bolstered when Margaret Thatcher
publicly announced her support for him. His victory in the contest was helped by the fact that his opponent in the final vote of party members was Kenneth Clarke
, whose strong support for the European Union was at odds with the views of much of the party.
As a mark of respect for the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, the announcement of Duncan Smith's victory in the leadership contest was delayed until 13 September 2001. In November 2001, he was one of the first politicians to call for an invasion of Iraq
and held talks in Washington, DC, with senior US officials, including Vice President
Dick Cheney
, Condoleezza Rice
and Paul Wolfowitz
.
In local elections, the only elections in which Duncan Smith led the party, the Conservatives gained over 500 extra seats on local councils, primarily in England.
on the TV programme Newsnight
caused some embarrassment when probing Duncan Smith's curriculum vitae, which had been in circulation for years, for example, being reproduced in the authoritative annual Dod's Parliamentary Companion
for the previous ten years. The CV claimed that he had attended the University of Perugia
when he had in fact attended the Università per Stranieri, which did not grant any degrees at that time, and a claim that he had attended the prestigious-sounding Dunchurch College of Management turned out to refer to some weekend courses at GEC Marconi's staff college.
Duncan Smith proved not to be a particularly effective public speaker in the rowdy atmosphere of Prime Minister's Questions
(PMQs) in the House of Commons
. His seeming troubles with a "frog in his throat" throughout most of his two years as leader prompted Private Eye
to refer to him incessantly as "Iain Duncan Cough". As well as this, there were continued rumours of discontent among his backbencher
s, not dampened by his warning to his party in November 2002: "My message is simple and stark, unite or die".
The 2002 Conservative Party conference saw an attempt to turn Duncan Smith's lack of charisma into a positive attribute, with his much-quoted line, "do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man". The line was as much derided as it was admired. During PMQs, Labour backbenchers would raise their fingers to their lips and say "shush" when he was speaking. The following year, Duncan Smith's conference speech appeared to have abandoned this technique in favour of an aggressive hard-man approach that few found convincing, even if the party members in the hall punctuated the speech with several ovations. The most remembered sound bite from the speech was his, "the quiet man is here to stay, and he's turning up the volume."
Duncan Smith stated in December 2002 that he intended to be party leader for a "very long time to come." This did little to quell the speculation in Westminster regarding his future. On 21 February 2003, The Independent
newspaper published a story saying that a number of MPs were attempting to start the process of petitioning for a vote of no confidence in Duncan Smith, as many Conservative MPs considered him to be unelectable.
These worries came to a head in October 2003. Michael Crick revealed that he had compiled embarrassing evidence, this time of dubious salary claims Duncan Smith made on behalf of his wife that were paid out of the public purse from September 2001 to December 2002. The ensuing scandal, known as "Betsygate
" weakened his already tenuous position.
demanding the vote. On 26 October, amid mounting claims that the threshold of 25 was about to be reached, Duncan Smith made an appearance on television daring his opponents to show their hand by the evening of 29 October or to withdraw their challenge. He also stated that he would not step down if a vote was called. Duncan Smith's demand that 25 MPs write to the Chairman by 29 October had no bearing on party regulations. Had the votes not been delivered until later, the vote of no confidence would still have gone ahead. Nevertheless, by 28 October, 25 Conservative MPs had indeed signed on to demand a vote.
After the vote was announced, Duncan Smith made an appearance in front of Conservative Party headquarters in Smith Square
, where he stated that he was "absolutely" going to contest the vote, which was held on 29 October. He lost by 90 votes to 75. He stepped down as leader eight days later when Michael Howard
was confirmed as his successor (Howard was unopposed for the role and so no election was required).
Duncan Smith followed William Hague as only the second Conservative Party leader since Austen Chamberlain
not to have become Prime Minister and was the first since Neville Chamberlain not to have led the party in a general election.
in 2004. This organisation is a centre-right think tank which works with small charities with the aim of finding innovative policies for tackling poverty. (Duncan Smith served as the centre's Chairman until he joined the Cabinet in May 2010, and remains its Life Patron.) He also served under Michael Howard on the Conservative Party's advisory council, along with John Major, William Hague and Kenneth Clarke.
On 7 December 2005, Duncan Smith was appointed Chairman of the Social Justice Policy Group, which was facilitated by the Centre for Social Justice. The group's aim was to "study the causes and consequences of poverty in Britain and seek practical ideas to empower the least well-off," and was one of several that were set up by Conservative Party leader David Cameron. Duncan Smith's Deputy Chair was Debbie Scott, the Chief Executive of the charity Tomorrow's People. The group released two major reports, "Breakdown Britain" and "Breakthrough Britain". "Breakdown Britain" was a three hundred thousand word document that analysed what was going wrong in the areas of Economic Dependence and Unemployment, Family Breakdown, Addiction, Educational Failure, Indebtedness, and the Voluntary Sector. "Breakthrough Britain" recommended almost two hundred policy ideas using broadly the same themes. On their website the group claimed that the Government has so far taken on sixteen of the recommendations, and the Conservatives twenty-nine.
Duncan Smith was re-elected comfortably in Chingford and Woodford Green at the 2005 general election
, almost doubling his majority, and remained a backbencher for the Conservative Party. He has been Member of Parliament for Chingford and Woodford Green since 1992, when he succeeded Norman Tebbit.
In September 2006 he was one of fourteen authors of a report concerning Anti-Semitism
in Britain. He was also one of the only early supporters of the Iraq surge policy. In September 2007, he called for Britain to withdraw from the war against Afghanistan
and to fight in the war in Iraq indefinitely. In his 2009 Conservative Party Conference speech, Conservative Party leader David Cameron signalled that Duncan Smith might serve in his Cabinet, with responsibility for social justice, should he be called upon to form an administration after the next general election.
with the Liberal Democrats
, with David Cameron as Prime Minister. Cameron appointed Duncan Smith to the Cabinet
as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
, with responsibility for seeing through changes to the welfare state
.
Outlining the scale of the problem, Duncan Smith said almost five million people were on unemployment benefits, 1.4 million of whom had been receiving support for nine or more of the last 10 years. In addition, 1.4 million under-25s were neither working nor in full-time education. "This picture is set against a backdrop of 13 years of continuously increasing expenditure, which has outstripped inflation," he said. "Worse than the growing expense though, is the fact that the money is not even making the impact we want it to. He continued saying "A system that was originally designed to support the poorest in society is now trapping them in the very condition it was supposed to alleviate."
It was also announced that Duncan Smith will chair a new Cabinet Committee, involving Cabinet members from the Treasury, Home Office, Health, and Communities and Local Government departments, to tackle the underlying causes of poverty.
In June 2010, Duncan Smith said that the Government will encourage people to work for longer by making it illegal for companies to force staff to give up work at 65. At the same time, the age at which employees can claim the state pension will rise to 66 as soon as 2016 for men – 10 years earlier than the last government had decreed. Life expectancy is currently 77.4 for men and 81.6 for women. At present rates, there will be three people in their nineties for every newborn by 2050. Duncan Smith told The Daily Telegraph that the radical pension reform he will oversee was designed to “reinvigorate retirement”. “People are living longer and healthier lives than ever, and the last thing we want is to lose their skills and experience from the workplace due to an arbitrary age limit,” he said. “Now is absolutely the right time to live up to our responsibility to reform our outdated pension system and to take action where the previous government failed to do so. If Britain is to have a stable, affordable pension system, people need to work longer, but we will reward their hard work with a decent state pension that will enable them to enjoy quality of life in their retirement. He continued saying, “That is why we are issuing a call for evidence on moving the state pension age to 66, and thereafter plan to take a frank look at the relationship between state pension age and life expectancy.” The announcement coincides with John Hutton, the former Labour minister, beginning a review of public sector pensions which is expected to recommend that staff contributions increase substantially as soon as 2011.
In July 2010, Duncan Smith said that more workers will have to wait until they are 68 to claim their state pension as the Government speeds up plans to raise the retirement age saying the move would save billions of pounds. Labour set out plans to increase the retirement age to 66 by 2024 and 68 by 2046 to reflect growing life expectancy. Before the election, the Tories suggested that it should rise to 66 sooner – by 2016. Duncan Smith said workers would have to accept even quicker increases as Britain tightens its belt. The Government's timetable suggests that the retirement age is likely to reach 68 by 2038, meaning millions more will be forced to wait for their pension.
On 30 July 2010, Duncan Smith announced a series of reforms that are intended to ensure that low earners will always be better off in employment. They are in a document that will form the basis of a White Paper to be published this autumn and herald the end of Labour’s complicated tax credits system, with many benefits being rolled into one. "After years of piecemeal reform the current welfare system is complex and unfair," said Duncan Smith. One example cited by Duncan Smith involves the case of a lone parent with three school-age children earning £7.50 an hour as an office administrator. Working 23 hours a week, he says, she would have a net weekly income (including benefits and tax credits) of £345 after paying rent and council tax. However, if she were to increase her hours to 34 a week she would get only about £10 more due to a loss of benefits. The new system will be called the Universal Credit
.
In November 2010, as Work and Pensions Secretary, Duncan Smith said a major shake-up in the welfare system would benefit all those who "play by the rules". The plan, which will see people who refuse to take up job opportunities stripped of benefits for up to three years, is part of a "contract" with the unemployed. Duncan Smith said simplifying the welfare system would ensure "work always pays more" than relying on the state by easing the rate at which benefits are withdrawn as income rises.
In a Commons statement on 11 November 2010, he said: "This is our contract: we make work pay and support you through the Work Programme to find a job. "But in return, if we do that, we also expect co-operation from those who are seeking work.
"That is why we are developing a regime of sanctions for those who refuse to play by the rules as well as targeted work activity for those who need to get used to the habits of work".
Duncan Smith, in December 2011 has drawn up proposals to stop “under-employed” people “topping up” their wages with hand-outs when they are capable of working for longer. Individuals will be told they must earn a minimum amount each week from their jobs and will face being stripped of their housing benefit and tax credits if they fall short, under the plan. The reforms, which could come into force from 2013, mark the latest stage of Mr Duncan Smith’s drive to encourage more people to move from a dependency on benefits to earning a living through work. Duncan Smith said benefit claimants “must take responsibility for themselves” and their families. “We are already requiring people on out of work benefits to do more to prepare for and look for work,” he said. “Now we are looking to change the rules for those who are in-work and claiming benefits, so that once they have overcome their barriers and got into work, in time they can reduce their dependency or come off benefits altogether.”
Duncan Smith said in February 2011 that it is "absurd and damaging" for ministers not to extol the benefits of marriage for fear of stigmatising those who choose not to marry. Duncan Smith said: "We do a disservice to society if we ignore the evidence which shows that stable families tend to be associated with better outcomes for children." He added: "There are few more powerful tools for promoting stability than the institution of marriage." He added that "The financial costs of family breakdown are incredibly high. But what is most painful to see is the human cost – the wasted potential, the anti-social behaviour, and the low self-esteem."
Mr Duncan Smith believes that some companies are using immigration as “an excuse to import labour to take up posts which could be filled by people already in Britain”. He says Britain needs an immigration system that gives the unemployed “a level playing field”. “If we do not get this right then we risk leaving more British citizens out of work, and the most vulnerable group who will be the most affected are young people,” he said.
and Aston Villa
. Gareth Southgate
cited Duncan Smith when he remarked after England's
2002 World Cup
quarter-final defeat against Brazil that "we were expecting Winston Churchill
and instead we got Iain Duncan Smith." This comparison was seen as being a scathing criticism of the then England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson
's quiet and understated approach to management.
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United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Conservative
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
politician. He is currently the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is a post in the British Cabinet, responsible for the Department for Work and Pensions. It was created on 8 June 2001 by the merger of the Employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security.The Ministry...
and was previously leader of the Conservative Party
Leaders of the Conservative Party
The Leader of the Conservative Party is the most senior politician within the Conservative Party in the United Kingdom. The post is currently held by David Cameron, who s eeded Michael Howard in 2005, and who since 2010 is also the serving Prime Minister....
from September 2001 to October 2003. He was first elected to parliament at the 1992 General Election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
as the MP for Chingford and Woodford Green, a seat which he has held ever since.
Duncan Smith was born in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
, and served in the Scots Guard from 1975 to 1981, with service in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
and Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
. He joined the Conservative Party
Conservative Party (UK)
The Conservative Party, formally the Conservative and Unionist Party, is a centre-right political party in the United Kingdom that adheres to the philosophies of conservatism and British unionism. It is the largest political party in the UK, and is currently the largest single party in the House...
in 1981, and was elected as a Member of Parliament in 1992. When William Hague
William Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
resigned as Conservative Party leader in 2001, Duncan Smith won the subsequent leadership election
Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2001
The 2001 Conservative leadership election was held after the United Kingdom Conservative Party failed to make inroads into the Labour government's lead in the 2001 general election. Party leader William Hague resigned, and a leadership contest was called under new rules Hague had introduced...
, bolstered by the support of Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
and his Eurosceptic
Euroscepticism
Euroscepticism is a general term used to describe criticism of the European Union , and opposition to the process of European integration, existing throughout the political spectrum. Traditionally, the main source of euroscepticism has been the notion that integration weakens the nation state...
ideology. Duncan Smith was the first Roman Catholic to serve as Conservative Party leader, and the first born in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
since Arthur Balfour
Arthur Balfour
Arthur James Balfour, 1st Earl of Balfour, KG, OM, PC, DL was a British Conservative politician and statesman...
.
In 2003, the Conservative Party passed a Vote of No Confidence in Duncan Smith, as many considered him unable to return the party to government. He resigned, and was succeeded as party leader by Michael Howard
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...
. As a backbencher, Duncan Smith founded the Centre for Social Justice
Centre for Social Justice
The Centre for Social Justice is an independent, not-for-profit thinktank set up by the Rt. Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, to advance the education of the public in the subject of social justice and to promote the role of the voluntary sector...
, a centre-right
Centre-right
The centre-right or center-right is a political term commonly used to describe or denote individuals, political parties, or organizations whose views stretch from the centre to the right on the left-right spectrum, excluding far right stances. Centre-right can also describe a coalition of centrist...
think tank
Think tank
A think tank is an organization that conducts research and engages in advocacy in areas such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, and technology issues. Most think tanks are non-profit organizations, which some countries such as the United States and Canada provide with tax...
independent of the Conservative Party and became a published novelist. On May 12, 2010, Conservative leader and Prime Minister
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the Head of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom. The Prime Minister and Cabinet are collectively accountable for their policies and actions to the Sovereign, to Parliament, to their political party and...
David Cameron
David Cameron
David William Donald Cameron is the current Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, First Lord of the Treasury, Minister for the Civil Service and Leader of the Conservative Party. Cameron represents Witney as its Member of Parliament ....
appointed Duncan Smith to serve in the cabinet as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is a post in the British Cabinet, responsible for the Department for Work and Pensions. It was created on 8 June 2001 by the merger of the Employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security.The Ministry...
.
Early life
Duncan Smith was born in EdinburghEdinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
, Scotland, in 1954. He is the son of W. G. G. Duncan Smith
W. G. G. Duncan Smith
Group Captain Wilfrid George Gerald Duncan Smith, DSO and Bar, DFC and 2 Bars was a British Royal Air Force Second World War Flying ace.-Early life:...
, a Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
Group Captain highly decorated in World War II, and Pamela, a ballerina; they married in 1946. Duncan Smith's great-grandmother was a Japanese woman, Ellen Oshey, who married Pamela's grandfather, merchant seaman Captain Samuel Lewis Shaw. He is thus one-eighth Japanese (Yonsei
Yonsei (fourth-generation Nikkei)
is a Japanese diasporic term used in countries, particularly in North America and in Latin America, to specify the great-grandchildren of Japanese immigrants . The children of Issei are Nisei . Sansei are the third generation, and their offspring are Yonsei...
). Other relatives include British Canadian CBC
CBC Radio
CBC Radio generally refers to the English-language radio operations of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The CBC operates a number of radio networks serving different audiences and programming niches, all of which are outlined below.-English:CBC Radio operates three English language...
wartime broadcaster Peter Stursberg
Peter Stursberg
Peter Stursberg, CM is a Canadian writer and broadcaster.Born in Chefoo, China, he has spent his career as a foreign correspondent, newspaper editor, television newscaster and commentator, and author...
, whose 2002 book No Foreign Bones in China records the story of the Anglo-Japanese couple, and his son, current CBC vice-president Richard Stursberg
Richard Stursberg
Richard Stursberg was executive vice president of CBC/Radio Canada from October 1, 2004 to August 6, 2010.-Life and career:Stursberg has more than 25 years’ experience in the entertainment, broadcasting, cable, telecommunications and cultural industries, including terms as head of the Canadian...
. Through Captain Shaw, Duncan Smith is also a distant relative of George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
, the Irish playwright and socialist.
Education and early career
Duncan Smith was educated at St. Peter's RC Secondary School, SolihullSt. Peter's RC Secondary School, Solihull
St. Peter's RC Secondary School is a coeducational Roman Catholic secondary comprehensive school and Sixth Form college in the English town of Solihull, West Midlands. St...
until the age of 14 and was subsequently educated at HMS Conway
HMS Conway (school ship)
HMS Conway was a naval training school or "school ship", founded in 1859 and housed for most of its life aboard a 19th-century wooden battleship. The ship was originally stationed on the Mersey near Liverpool, then moved to the Menai Strait during World War II. While being towed back to Birkenhead...
, a naval training school on the isle of Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...
(where he allegedly played rugby union
Rugby union
Rugby union, often simply referred to as rugby, is a full contact team sport which originated in England in the early 19th century. One of the two codes of rugby football, it is based on running with the ball in hand...
in the position of fly-half alongside Clive Woodward
Clive Woodward
Sir Clive Ronald Woodward OBE is an English former rugby union player and coach. He was coach of the team from 1997 to 2004, managing them to victory in the 2003 Rugby World Cup. He is currently the British Olympic Association's Director of Elite Performance.-Early life:Woodward was born in Ely...
at centre) until he was 18. He then also attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst , commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is a British Army officer initial training centre located in Sandhurst, Berkshire, England...
.
He joined the Scots Guards in 1975, with his six-year service including spells in Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland
Northern Ireland is one of the four countries of the United Kingdom. Situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, it shares a border with the Republic of Ireland to the south and west...
and Rhodesia
Rhodesia
Rhodesia , officially the Republic of Rhodesia from 1970, was an unrecognised state located in southern Africa that existed between 1965 and 1979 following its Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom on 11 November 1965...
, where he served as aide-de-camp
Aide-de-camp
An aide-de-camp is a personal assistant, secretary, or adjutant to a person of high rank, usually a senior military officer or a head of state...
to Major-General Sir John Acland
On leaving the Guards, Duncan Smith joined the Conservative Party and took up employment at the General Electric Company in 1981. He married Elizabeth "Betsy" Fremantle, daughter of the 5th Baron Cottesloe
John Fremantle, 5th Baron Cottesloe
Commander John Tapling Fremantle, 5th Baron Cottesloe, 6th Baron Fremantle, DL JP RN is a Baron in the Peerage of the United Kingdom and an Austrian nobleman....
, in 1982. The couple have four children.
Parliamentary career
At the 1987 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 1987
The United Kingdom general election of 1987 was held on 11 June 1987, to elect 650 members to the British House of Commons. The election was the third consecutive election victory for the Conservative Party under the leadership of Margaret Thatcher, who became the first Prime Minister since the 2nd...
, Duncan Smith contested the constituency of Bradford West
Bradford West (UK Parliament constituency)
Bradford West is a borough constituency in England which is represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....
, where he was defeated by the incumbent Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...
MP Max Madden
Max Madden
Maxwell Francis "Max" Madden is a British journalist and Labour Party politician.Madden was elected as Member of Parliament for Sowerby at the February 1974 election, which he lost to the Conservatives in 1979....
. At the 1992 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1992
The United Kingdom general election of 1992 was held on 9 April 1992, and was the fourth consecutive victory for the Conservative Party. This election result was one of the biggest surprises in 20th Century politics, as polling leading up to the day of the election showed Labour under leader Neil...
, he stood in the constituency of Chingford
Chingford (UK Parliament constituency)
Chingford was a parliamentary constituency centred on the town of Chingford in the London Borough of Waltham Forest. It returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by the first past the post system....
(where the Conservative MP, Norman Tebbit
Norman Tebbit
Norman Beresford Tebbit, Baron Tebbit, CH, PC , is a British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served in the Cabinet from 1981 to 1987 as Secretary of State for Employment...
, was retiring), and was elected to parliament. (Following boundary changes, Duncan Smith's constituency became Chingford and Woodford Green in 1997.)
A committed Eurosceptic
Euroscepticism
Euroscepticism is a general term used to describe criticism of the European Union , and opposition to the process of European integration, existing throughout the political spectrum. Traditionally, the main source of euroscepticism has been the notion that integration weakens the nation state...
, Duncan Smith was a constant thorn in the side of Prime Minister John Major
John Major
Sir John Major, is a British Conservative politician, who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1990–1997...
's government in 1992–97, disrupting Major's pro-European agenda at the time (something that would often be raised during his own subsequent leadership when he called for the party to unite behind him).
Duncan Smith remained on the backbenches
Backbencher
In Westminster parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a Member of Parliament or a legislator who does not hold governmental office and is not a Front Bench spokesperson in the Opposition...
until 1997, when the new Conservative leader William Hague
William Hague
William Jefferson Hague is the British Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He served as Leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001...
brought him into the Shadow Cabinet
Shadow Cabinet
The Shadow Cabinet is a senior group of opposition spokespeople in the Westminster system of government who together under the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition form an alternative cabinet to the government's, whose members shadow or mark each individual member of the government...
as Shadow Social Security Secretary. In 1999, Duncan Smith was moved to replace John Maples
John Maples
John Cradock Maples, Baron Maples is British politician. A member of the Conservative Party, he served as a Member of Parliament representing Lewisham West from 1982 to 1992 and Stratford-upon-Avon from 1997 to 2010...
as Shadow Defence Secretary.
Leader of the Conservative Party
William Hague resigned after the Labour Party's victory in the 2001 general electionUnited Kingdom general election, 2001
The United Kingdom general election, 2001 was held on Thursday 7 June 2001 to elect 659 members to the British House of Commons. It was dubbed "the quiet landslide" by the media, as the Labour Party was re-elected with another landslide result and only suffered a net loss of 6 seats...
. On 13 September 2001, Duncan Smith won the Conservative Party leadership election
Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2001
The 2001 Conservative leadership election was held after the United Kingdom Conservative Party failed to make inroads into the Labour government's lead in the 2001 general election. Party leader William Hague resigned, and a leadership contest was called under new rules Hague had introduced...
. He had initially been seen as an outsider candidate, but his support was bolstered when Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Thatcher
Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990...
publicly announced her support for him. His victory in the contest was helped by the fact that his opponent in the final vote of party members was Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Clarke
Kenneth Harry "Ken" Clarke, QC, MP is a British Conservative politician, currently Member of Parliament for Rushcliffe, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice. He was first elected to Parliament in 1970; and appointed a minister in Edward Heath's government, in 1972, and is one of...
, whose strong support for the European Union was at odds with the views of much of the party.
As a mark of respect for the victims of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001, the announcement of Duncan Smith's victory in the leadership contest was delayed until 13 September 2001. In November 2001, he was one of the first politicians to call for an invasion of Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
and held talks in Washington, DC, with senior US officials, including Vice President
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney
Richard Bruce "Dick" Cheney served as the 46th Vice President of the United States , under George W. Bush....
, Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...
and Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Dundes Wolfowitz is a former United States Ambassador to Indonesia, U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense, President of the World Bank, and former dean of the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University...
.
In local elections, the only elections in which Duncan Smith led the party, the Conservatives gained over 500 extra seats on local councils, primarily in England.
Problems as leader
In 2002, Michael CrickMichael Crick
Michael Crick is a British journalist, author and broadcaster. Crick was a founding member of the Channel 4 News Team in 1982. He worked on the BBC's Newsnight between 1992 and 2011, acting as the programme's political editor from 2007 to his departure...
on the TV programme Newsnight
Newsnight
Newsnight is a BBC Television current affairs programme noted for its in-depth analysis and often robust cross-examination of senior politicians. Jeremy Paxman has been its main presenter for over two decades....
caused some embarrassment when probing Duncan Smith's curriculum vitae, which had been in circulation for years, for example, being reproduced in the authoritative annual Dod's Parliamentary Companion
Dod's Parliamentary Companion
Dod's Parliamentary Companion is an annual politics reference book published in the United Kingdom.It provides biographies and contact information on members of the Houses of Parliament and the Civil Service...
for the previous ten years. The CV claimed that he had attended the University of Perugia
University of Perugia
University of Perugia is a public-owned university based in Perugia, Italy. It was founded in 1308, as attested by the Bull issued by Pope Clement V certifying the birth of the Studium Generale....
when he had in fact attended the Università per Stranieri, which did not grant any degrees at that time, and a claim that he had attended the prestigious-sounding Dunchurch College of Management turned out to refer to some weekend courses at GEC Marconi's staff college.
Duncan Smith proved not to be a particularly effective public speaker in the rowdy atmosphere of Prime Minister's Questions
Prime Minister's Questions
Prime minister's questions is a constitutional convention in the United Kingdom that takes place every Wednesday during which the prime minister spends half an hour answering questions from members of parliament...
(PMQs) in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
. His seeming troubles with a "frog in his throat" throughout most of his two years as leader prompted Private Eye
Private Eye
Private Eye is a fortnightly British satirical and current affairs magazine, edited by Ian Hislop.Since its first publication in 1961, Private Eye has been a prominent critic and lampooner of public figures and entities that it deemed guilty of any of the sins of incompetence, inefficiency,...
to refer to him incessantly as "Iain Duncan Cough". As well as this, there were continued rumours of discontent among his backbencher
Backbencher
In Westminster parliamentary systems, a backbencher is a Member of Parliament or a legislator who does not hold governmental office and is not a Front Bench spokesperson in the Opposition...
s, not dampened by his warning to his party in November 2002: "My message is simple and stark, unite or die".
The 2002 Conservative Party conference saw an attempt to turn Duncan Smith's lack of charisma into a positive attribute, with his much-quoted line, "do not underestimate the determination of a quiet man". The line was as much derided as it was admired. During PMQs, Labour backbenchers would raise their fingers to their lips and say "shush" when he was speaking. The following year, Duncan Smith's conference speech appeared to have abandoned this technique in favour of an aggressive hard-man approach that few found convincing, even if the party members in the hall punctuated the speech with several ovations. The most remembered sound bite from the speech was his, "the quiet man is here to stay, and he's turning up the volume."
Duncan Smith stated in December 2002 that he intended to be party leader for a "very long time to come." This did little to quell the speculation in Westminster regarding his future. On 21 February 2003, The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
newspaper published a story saying that a number of MPs were attempting to start the process of petitioning for a vote of no confidence in Duncan Smith, as many Conservative MPs considered him to be unelectable.
These worries came to a head in October 2003. Michael Crick revealed that he had compiled embarrassing evidence, this time of dubious salary claims Duncan Smith made on behalf of his wife that were paid out of the public purse from September 2001 to December 2002. The ensuing scandal, known as "Betsygate
Betsygate
Betsygate was a minor political scandal in the United Kingdom while Iain Duncan Smith was Leader of the Conservative Party. The scandal was over the level of pay that lain Duncan Smith’s wife Elisabeth enjoyed as her husband’s diary secretary....
" weakened his already tenuous position.
Vote of no confidence
Under leadership vote of confidence rules, 15% of Conservative MPs (at this point twenty-five MPs) had to write to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee1922 Committee
In British politics, the 1922 Committee is a committee of Conservative Members of Parliament. Voting membership is limited to backbench MPs although frontbench Conservative MPs have an open invitation to attend meetings. While the party was in opposition, frontbench MPs other than the party leader...
demanding the vote. On 26 October, amid mounting claims that the threshold of 25 was about to be reached, Duncan Smith made an appearance on television daring his opponents to show their hand by the evening of 29 October or to withdraw their challenge. He also stated that he would not step down if a vote was called. Duncan Smith's demand that 25 MPs write to the Chairman by 29 October had no bearing on party regulations. Had the votes not been delivered until later, the vote of no confidence would still have gone ahead. Nevertheless, by 28 October, 25 Conservative MPs had indeed signed on to demand a vote.
After the vote was announced, Duncan Smith made an appearance in front of Conservative Party headquarters in Smith Square
Smith Square
Smith Square is a square in the Westminster district of London, just south of the Palace of Westminster. The centre of the square is occupied by St John's, Smith Square, a Baroque church now used as a concert hall...
, where he stated that he was "absolutely" going to contest the vote, which was held on 29 October. He lost by 90 votes to 75. He stepped down as leader eight days later when Michael Howard
Michael Howard
Michael Howard, Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, QC, PC is a British politician, who served as the Leader of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition from November 2003 to December 2005...
was confirmed as his successor (Howard was unopposed for the role and so no election was required).
Duncan Smith followed William Hague as only the second Conservative Party leader since Austen Chamberlain
Austen Chamberlain
Sir Joseph Austen Chamberlain, KG was a British statesman, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize and half-brother of Neville Chamberlain.- Early life and career :...
not to have become Prime Minister and was the first since Neville Chamberlain not to have led the party in a general election.
Return to the backbenches
After his term as party leader, Duncan Smith established the Centre for Social JusticeCentre for Social Justice
The Centre for Social Justice is an independent, not-for-profit thinktank set up by the Rt. Hon Iain Duncan Smith MP, to advance the education of the public in the subject of social justice and to promote the role of the voluntary sector...
in 2004. This organisation is a centre-right think tank which works with small charities with the aim of finding innovative policies for tackling poverty. (Duncan Smith served as the centre's Chairman until he joined the Cabinet in May 2010, and remains its Life Patron.) He also served under Michael Howard on the Conservative Party's advisory council, along with John Major, William Hague and Kenneth Clarke.
On 7 December 2005, Duncan Smith was appointed Chairman of the Social Justice Policy Group, which was facilitated by the Centre for Social Justice. The group's aim was to "study the causes and consequences of poverty in Britain and seek practical ideas to empower the least well-off," and was one of several that were set up by Conservative Party leader David Cameron. Duncan Smith's Deputy Chair was Debbie Scott, the Chief Executive of the charity Tomorrow's People. The group released two major reports, "Breakdown Britain" and "Breakthrough Britain". "Breakdown Britain" was a three hundred thousand word document that analysed what was going wrong in the areas of Economic Dependence and Unemployment, Family Breakdown, Addiction, Educational Failure, Indebtedness, and the Voluntary Sector. "Breakthrough Britain" recommended almost two hundred policy ideas using broadly the same themes. On their website the group claimed that the Government has so far taken on sixteen of the recommendations, and the Conservatives twenty-nine.
Duncan Smith was re-elected comfortably in Chingford and Woodford Green at the 2005 general election
United Kingdom general election, 2005
The United Kingdom general election of 2005 was held on Thursday, 5 May 2005 to elect 646 members to the British House of Commons. The Labour Party under Tony Blair won its third consecutive victory, but with a majority of 66, reduced from 160....
, almost doubling his majority, and remained a backbencher for the Conservative Party. He has been Member of Parliament for Chingford and Woodford Green since 1992, when he succeeded Norman Tebbit.
In September 2006 he was one of fourteen authors of a report concerning Anti-Semitism
Anti-Semitism
Antisemitism is suspicion of, hatred toward, or discrimination against Jews for reasons connected to their Jewish heritage. According to a 2005 U.S...
in Britain. He was also one of the only early supporters of the Iraq surge policy. In September 2007, he called for Britain to withdraw from the war against Afghanistan
War in Afghanistan (2001–present)
The War in Afghanistan began on October 7, 2001, as the armed forces of the United States of America, the United Kingdom, Australia, and the Afghan United Front launched Operation Enduring Freedom...
and to fight in the war in Iraq indefinitely. In his 2009 Conservative Party Conference speech, Conservative Party leader David Cameron signalled that Duncan Smith might serve in his Cabinet, with responsibility for social justice, should he be called upon to form an administration after the next general election.
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Following the 2010 general election, the Conservative Party formed coalition governmentCoalition government
A coalition government is a cabinet of a parliamentary government in which several political parties cooperate. The usual reason given for this arrangement is that no party on its own can achieve a majority in the parliament...
with the Liberal Democrats
Liberal Democrats
The Liberal Democrats are a social liberal political party in the United Kingdom which supports constitutional and electoral reform, progressive taxation, wealth taxation, human rights laws, cultural liberalism, banking reform and civil liberties .The party was formed in 1988 by a merger of the...
, with David Cameron as Prime Minister. Cameron appointed Duncan Smith to the Cabinet
Cabinet of the United Kingdom
The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 22 Cabinet Ministers, the most senior of the government ministers....
as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions is a post in the British Cabinet, responsible for the Department for Work and Pensions. It was created on 8 June 2001 by the merger of the Employment part of the Department for Education and Employment and the Department of Social Security.The Ministry...
, with responsibility for seeing through changes to the welfare state
Welfare state
A welfare state is a "concept of government in which the state plays a key role in the protection and promotion of the economic and social well-being of its citizens. It is based on the principles of equality of opportunity, equitable distribution of wealth, and public responsibility for those...
.
Outlining the scale of the problem, Duncan Smith said almost five million people were on unemployment benefits, 1.4 million of whom had been receiving support for nine or more of the last 10 years. In addition, 1.4 million under-25s were neither working nor in full-time education. "This picture is set against a backdrop of 13 years of continuously increasing expenditure, which has outstripped inflation," he said. "Worse than the growing expense though, is the fact that the money is not even making the impact we want it to. He continued saying "A system that was originally designed to support the poorest in society is now trapping them in the very condition it was supposed to alleviate."
It was also announced that Duncan Smith will chair a new Cabinet Committee, involving Cabinet members from the Treasury, Home Office, Health, and Communities and Local Government departments, to tackle the underlying causes of poverty.
In June 2010, Duncan Smith said that the Government will encourage people to work for longer by making it illegal for companies to force staff to give up work at 65. At the same time, the age at which employees can claim the state pension will rise to 66 as soon as 2016 for men – 10 years earlier than the last government had decreed. Life expectancy is currently 77.4 for men and 81.6 for women. At present rates, there will be three people in their nineties for every newborn by 2050. Duncan Smith told The Daily Telegraph that the radical pension reform he will oversee was designed to “reinvigorate retirement”. “People are living longer and healthier lives than ever, and the last thing we want is to lose their skills and experience from the workplace due to an arbitrary age limit,” he said. “Now is absolutely the right time to live up to our responsibility to reform our outdated pension system and to take action where the previous government failed to do so. If Britain is to have a stable, affordable pension system, people need to work longer, but we will reward their hard work with a decent state pension that will enable them to enjoy quality of life in their retirement. He continued saying, “That is why we are issuing a call for evidence on moving the state pension age to 66, and thereafter plan to take a frank look at the relationship between state pension age and life expectancy.” The announcement coincides with John Hutton, the former Labour minister, beginning a review of public sector pensions which is expected to recommend that staff contributions increase substantially as soon as 2011.
In July 2010, Duncan Smith said that more workers will have to wait until they are 68 to claim their state pension as the Government speeds up plans to raise the retirement age saying the move would save billions of pounds. Labour set out plans to increase the retirement age to 66 by 2024 and 68 by 2046 to reflect growing life expectancy. Before the election, the Tories suggested that it should rise to 66 sooner – by 2016. Duncan Smith said workers would have to accept even quicker increases as Britain tightens its belt. The Government's timetable suggests that the retirement age is likely to reach 68 by 2038, meaning millions more will be forced to wait for their pension.
On 30 July 2010, Duncan Smith announced a series of reforms that are intended to ensure that low earners will always be better off in employment. They are in a document that will form the basis of a White Paper to be published this autumn and herald the end of Labour’s complicated tax credits system, with many benefits being rolled into one. "After years of piecemeal reform the current welfare system is complex and unfair," said Duncan Smith. One example cited by Duncan Smith involves the case of a lone parent with three school-age children earning £7.50 an hour as an office administrator. Working 23 hours a week, he says, she would have a net weekly income (including benefits and tax credits) of £345 after paying rent and council tax. However, if she were to increase her hours to 34 a week she would get only about £10 more due to a loss of benefits. The new system will be called the Universal Credit
Universal Credit
The Universal Credit is a proposed new benefit which will replace six of the main means-tested benefits and tax credits in the United Kingdom.-Background:...
.
In November 2010, as Work and Pensions Secretary, Duncan Smith said a major shake-up in the welfare system would benefit all those who "play by the rules". The plan, which will see people who refuse to take up job opportunities stripped of benefits for up to three years, is part of a "contract" with the unemployed. Duncan Smith said simplifying the welfare system would ensure "work always pays more" than relying on the state by easing the rate at which benefits are withdrawn as income rises.
In a Commons statement on 11 November 2010, he said: "This is our contract: we make work pay and support you through the Work Programme to find a job. "But in return, if we do that, we also expect co-operation from those who are seeking work.
"That is why we are developing a regime of sanctions for those who refuse to play by the rules as well as targeted work activity for those who need to get used to the habits of work".
Duncan Smith, in December 2011 has drawn up proposals to stop “under-employed” people “topping up” their wages with hand-outs when they are capable of working for longer. Individuals will be told they must earn a minimum amount each week from their jobs and will face being stripped of their housing benefit and tax credits if they fall short, under the plan. The reforms, which could come into force from 2013, mark the latest stage of Mr Duncan Smith’s drive to encourage more people to move from a dependency on benefits to earning a living through work. Duncan Smith said benefit claimants “must take responsibility for themselves” and their families. “We are already requiring people on out of work benefits to do more to prepare for and look for work,” he said. “Now we are looking to change the rules for those who are in-work and claiming benefits, so that once they have overcome their barriers and got into work, in time they can reduce their dependency or come off benefits altogether.”
Views on marriage
In December 2010 Duncan Smith studied a state-sponsored relationship education programme in Norway, under which couples are forced to “think again” and confront the reality of divorce before formally separating. The policy has been credited with reversing Norway’s trend for rising divorce rates and halting the decline of marriage in the country over the past 15 years. Duncan Smith said he was keen to explore ways in which similar approaches could be encouraged in Britain. Officials point out that such a programme would be expensive but an approach could reduce the long-term cost of family breakdown, which has been estimated at up to £100 billion. Duncan Smith said couples in Norway were able to “work through what is going to happen with their children”, which has “a very big effect on their thinking”. “Many of them think again about what they are going to embark on once they really understand the consequences of their actions subsequently,” he said.Duncan Smith said in February 2011 that it is "absurd and damaging" for ministers not to extol the benefits of marriage for fear of stigmatising those who choose not to marry. Duncan Smith said: "We do a disservice to society if we ignore the evidence which shows that stable families tend to be associated with better outcomes for children." He added: "There are few more powerful tools for promoting stability than the institution of marriage." He added that "The financial costs of family breakdown are incredibly high. But what is most painful to see is the human cost – the wasted potential, the anti-social behaviour, and the low self-esteem."
Views on immigration
In July 2011 Duncan Smith said that tighter immigration controls are vital if Britain is to avoid “losing another generation to dependency and hopelessness”. In a speech delivered in Spain he said that only immigrants with “something to offer” should be allowed into the country and that too often foreign workers purporting to be skilled take low-skilled jobs that could be occupied by British school leavers. According to the Daily Telegraphs analysis, the speech contained a warning to David Cameron "that a 'slack' attitude to immigration will result in the Coalition repeating the mistakes made under Labour, when the vast majority of new jobs generated before the recession were taken by immigrants". However, the published text of the speech does not refer to the prime minister in its comments on "seeing the situation repeat itself, with more than half of the rise in employment in the past year accounted for by foreign nationals".Mr Duncan Smith believes that some companies are using immigration as “an excuse to import labour to take up posts which could be filled by people already in Britain”. He says Britain needs an immigration system that gives the unemployed “a level playing field”. “If we do not get this right then we risk leaving more British citizens out of work, and the most vulnerable group who will be the most affected are young people,” he said.
Football
Duncan Smith has been reported to support both Tottenham Hotspur where he holds a season ticketSeason ticket
A season ticket is a ticket that grants privileges over a defined period of time.-Sport:In sport, a season ticket grants the holder access to all regular-season home games for one season without additional charges. The ticket usually offers a discounted price over purchasing a ticket for each of...
and Aston Villa
Aston Villa F.C.
Aston Villa Football Club is an English professional association football club based in Witton, Birmingham. The club was founded in 1874 and have played at their current home ground, Villa Park, since 1897. Aston Villa were founder members of The Football League in 1888. They were also founder...
. Gareth Southgate
Gareth Southgate
Gareth Southgate in Crawley, West Sussex is a retired English footballer and ex-manager. He is known as the "Penalty Misser of '96." He served as manager of Middlesbrough from June 2006, until he was dismissed in October 2009...
cited Duncan Smith when he remarked after England's
England national football team
The England national football team represents England in association football and is controlled by the Football Association, the governing body for football in England. England is the joint oldest national football team in the world, alongside Scotland, whom they played in the world's first...
2002 World Cup
2002 FIFA World Cup
The 2002 FIFA World Cup was the 17th staging of the FIFA World Cup, held in South Korea and Japan from 31 May to 30 June. It was also the first World Cup held in Asia, and the last in which the golden goal rule was implemented. Brazil won the tournament for a record fifth time, beating Germany 2–0...
quarter-final defeat against Brazil that "we were expecting Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
and instead we got Iain Duncan Smith." This comparison was seen as being a scathing criticism of the then England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson
Sven-Göran Eriksson
Sven-Göran Eriksson , in Sweden commonly referred to just by his nickname Svennis, is a Swedish ex-football manager. From October 2010 to October 2011 he managed Football League Championship side Leicester City....
's quiet and understated approach to management.
Novel
On 6 November 2003, Duncan Smith's novel The Devil's Tune was released, less than a fortnight after his removal from the party leadership. The book received heavily critical reviews such as, "Really, it's terrible ... Terrible, terrible, terrible.", by Sam Leith in the Daily Telegraph. The book was never published in paperback.External links
- Iain Duncan Smith MP official constituency website
- Profile at the Conservative Party
- Article archive at The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- Department for Work and Pensions official channel at YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, has a number of videos featuring Duncan Smith.
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