The Right Honourable Iain Duncan Smith MP |
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Secretary of State for Work and Pensions
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Incumbent | |
Assumed office 12 May 2010 |
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Prime Minister | David Cameron |
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Preceded by | Yvette Cooper |
Leader of the Opposition
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In office 12 September 2001 – 6 November 2003 |
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Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Prime Minister | Tony Blair |
Preceded by | William Hague |
Succeeded by | Michael Howard |
Shadow Secretary of State for Defence
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In office 15 June 1999 – 18 September 2001 |
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Leader | William Hague |
Preceded by | John Maples |
Succeeded by | Bernard Jenkin |
Shadow Secretary of State for Social Security
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In office 2 June 1997 – 15 June 1999 |
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Leader | William Hague |
Preceded by | Harriet Harman |
Succeeded by | David Willetts |
Member of Parliament
for Chingford and Woodford Green Chingford (1992–1997) |
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Incumbent | |
Assumed office 9 April 1992 |
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Preceded by | Norman Tebbit |
Majority | 10,641 (27.5%) |
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Born | 9 April 1954 Edinburgh, United Kingdom |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse(s) | Betsy Fremantle |
Children | 4 |
Alma mater | Royal Military Academy Sandhurst |
Profession | Businessman Soldier |
Religion | Roman Catholicism |
Military service | |
Service/branch | British Army |
Years of service | 1975–1981 |
Rank | Captain |
Unit | Scots Guards |
George Iain Duncan Smith (born 9 April 1954) is a British politician, often referred to by his initials, "IDS". He served as the Leader of the Conservative Party from 12 September 2001 to 6 November 2003. He is currently a member of the Cabinet, holding the portfolio of Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and is a Member of Parliament (MP) representing the London constituency Chingford and Woodford Green. In 2004 he set up the Centre for Social Justice, a think tank which is independent of the Conservative Party, initially serving as Chairman. He stepped down from this position following his Parliamentary appointment as Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, and now holds the non-executive role of Founder and Life Patron.[1]
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Duncan Smith was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of W. G. G. Duncan Smith, a Royal Air Force Group Captain highly decorated in World War II, and his wife Pamela, a ballerina, whom he married in 1946. Pamela's maternal grandmother, Iain's great-grandmother, was Ellen Oshey, a Japanese woman. Iain Duncan Smith is therefore one-eighth Japanese. Other ancestors and relatives include British Canadian CBC wartime broadcaster Peter Stursberg, whose 2002 book, No Foreign Bones in China, records the story of this uncommon couple, and his son, current CBC vice-president, Richard Stursberg.[2] Through Group Captain Shaw, Duncan Smith is also a distant relative of George Bernard Shaw, the Irish playwright and socialist.[3]
Duncan Smith was educated at HMS Conway, a naval training school on the isle of Anglesey, where he played rugby union in the position of fly-half alongside Clive Woodward at centre. He also attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. He joined the Scots Guards in 1975, with his six-year service including a spell in (then) Rhodesia and in Northern Ireland. Duncan Smith converted to Catholicism as a teenager. He speaks Italian.
On leaving the Guards, he 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. They have four children, who are being raised at least nominally Roman Catholic. Duncan Smith fought the safe Labour seat of Bradford West in the 1987 general election. At the following general election, he stood for his current seat (Chingford and Woodford Green) in the 1992 general election, succeeding Norman Tebbit on his retirement.
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 leadership when he called for the party to unite behind him). Duncan Smith remained on the backbenches until 1997, when he was promoted by William Hague to the shadow cabinet as Shadow Social Security Secretary. He moved in 1999 to replace John Maples as Shadow Defence Secretary.
William Hague resigned after Labour's victory in the 2001 general election. Duncan Smith won the contest to be elected leader of the Conservatives on 12 September 2001.
His eventual victory was thought to have been helped by the fact that, in the final vote, his opponent was Kenneth Clarke, whose strong support for the European Union is known to put many party members off supporting him as a leadership candidate. Iain Duncan Smith, being a strong Eurosceptic, was more popular.
His campaign successfully called for the expulsion of Edgar Griffin from the party. Griffin is the father of the BNP leader Nick Griffin. Until his exposure, he had been one of Duncan-Smith's campaign vice-chairmen. Duncan-Smith would not knowingly have appointed Griffin senior to this position. Griffin's technical expulsion was possible on the basis of his taking calls for the BNP when his wife was not able to do so. His wife was the national enquiries officer on the BNP telephone line. After he was elected to the leadership the Conservative Party suspended the right wing Conservative Monday Club and unsuccessfully attempted to expel the right wing activist Michael Keith Smith. Duncan Smith was initially seen as an outsider candidate, but his support was bolstered when Margaret Thatcher publicly announced her support.
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 his win 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, D.C. with senior U.S. officials, including Vice-President Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz.[4] In local elections, the only elections in which Duncan Smith led the party, the Conservatives gained over 500 extra seats on local councils, primarily throughout England.
In 2002, Michael Crick 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 Durnsford College of Management turned out to refer to some weekend courses at GEC Marconi's staff college.[5][6]
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 backbenchers, 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.[7]
Under leadership vote of confidence rules, fifteen percent of Conservative MPs (at this point twenty-five MPs) had to write to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee demanding the vote. On 26 October, amid mounting claims that the threshold of twenty-five 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 the twenty-five 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, twenty-five 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). Iain Duncan Smith became the first Conservative Party leader who did not become Prime Minister nor led the party into an election since Austen Chamberlain.
Since leaving office, Duncan Smith established the Centre for Social Justice, a centre-right think tank which works with small charities in its aim of finding innovative policies for tackling poverty. In addition he served under Michael Howard on an advisory council.[8]
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 have been 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"[9] 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"[10] 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. Iain Duncan Smith has been Member of Parliament for Chingford and Woodford Green since 1992 – when he succeeded Norman Tebbit.[11]
In September 2006 he was one of fourteen authors of a report concerning Anti-Semitism in the UK. He was also one of the only early supporters[12] 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.[13] 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.
Following the 2010 general election, the Conservative Party formed coalition government with the Liberal Democrats, with David Cameron as Prime Minister. Cameron appointed Duncan Smith 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."[14]
It was also announed that Duncan Smith will chair a new Cabinet Committee, involving Cabinet members from the treasury, Home Office, health, and communities and local government, 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.[15]
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. Duncan Smith says the move will 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. Mr 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.[16]
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 Mr 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.[17]
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.
Duncan Smith is a convert to Roman Catholicism, and his election led to the situation where the leaders of the three main British political parties all had Catholic ties and were born in Scotland. The leader of the Liberal Democrats at the time was Charles Kennedy, a Catholic born in Inverness, and the then Prime Minister Tony Blair was born in Edinburgh, attended Mass in Westminster Cathedral and is married to a Catholic, Cherie Booth. Blair subsequently converted to Catholicism in 2007.
The United Kingdom has never had an openly Catholic Prime Minister. (The Catholic Relief Act 1829 makes it a "high misdemeanour” for a Roman Catholic to directly or indirectly advise the Sovereign on appointments in the Church of England (one of the responsibilities of the Prime Minister is the selection of Church of England bishops for appointment by the Queen), although this particular aspect of Prime Ministerial duties could be delegated to another minister not similarly barred.)[18]
Duncan Smith has been reported to support both Tottenham Hotspur[19] where he holds a season ticket[20] and Aston Villa.[21] 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."[22] This comparison was seen as being a scathing criticism of the then England manager Sven-Göran Eriksson's quiet and understated approach to management.
Duncan Smith has been married to Betsy since 1982; they have two sons and two daughters.[23]
His wealth is estimated at £1m.[24]
Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
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Preceded by Norman Tebbit |
Member of Parliament for Chingford 1992–1997 |
Constituency abolished |
New constituency | Member of Parliament for Chingford and Woodford Green 1997–present |
Incumbent |
Political offices | ||
Preceded by Harriet Harman |
Shadow Secretary of State for Social Security 1997–1999 |
Succeeded by David Willetts |
Preceded by John Maples |
Shadow Secretary of State for Defence 1999–2001 |
Succeeded by Bernard Jenkin |
Preceded by William Hague |
Leader of the Opposition 2001–2003 |
Succeeded by Michael Howard |
Preceded by Yvette Cooper |
Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 2010–present |
Incumbent |
Party political offices | ||
Preceded by William Hague |
Leader of the Conservative Party 2001–2003 |
Succeeded by Michael Howard |
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