Monday 21 March 2016

Cameron to defend record after Duncan Smith resignation


David Cameron will defend his record later after Iain Duncan Smith resigned as work and pensions secretary and condemned cuts to disability benefits.
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.
But the PM will tell MPs he believes in "a modern, compassionate Conservatism".
Number 10 has strongly denied reports of a rift between David Cameron and his chancellor following the resignation.
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.
Opponents of the move said it could have affected up to 640,000 people, with recipients losing up to £100 a week.
* The Tory tensions over benefits
* Who is Stephen Crabb?
* In full: Iain Duncan Smith resignation letter
* PM's letter in reply to Duncan Smith
On Sunday, Mr Duncan Smith told the Fightnew'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.
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.
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".
The Fightnew'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.
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.

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