The IDS of March: Senior UK minister resigns over planned welfare cuts

A senior British cabinet minister resigned on Friday citing concerns about the latest round of cuts to benefits announced earlier this week, in a surprise move that heaps pressure on Chancellor George Osborne. Iain Duncan Smith, whose Work and Pensions department oversees the welfare system, said in his resignation letter to Prime Minister David Cameron that he had made the decision as he saw the cuts to disability payments as “a compromise too far”.

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.

Iain Duncan Smith

Osborne faces a growing rebellion from within his own party over the plan which tightens eligibility criteria for a state benefit which supports the disabled or long-term sick. A government source on Friday suggested the cuts would be “kicked into the long grass”. Duncan Smith’s resignation comes at a time when the Conservative Party is already deeply divided over an upcoming referendum on whether Britain should stay in the European Union. Duncan Smith is one of several senior Conservatives campaigning to leave the bloc.

IDS resigning has everything to do with the EU and nothing to do with welfare - why wait this long after causing misery to so many to resign.

Former Labour Party frontbencher Chuka Umunna

Iain Duncan Smith