Six key mistakes in IDS’ six year reign of error

The bedroom tax

Perhaps the most controversial of all of the spending cuts delivered by Iain Duncan Smith, the ending of the “spare room subsidy” destroyed at a stroke the coalition’s pretence that “we are all in it together”.

The bedroom tax cut housing benefit by an average of £14 a week for one extra bedroom and £25 a week for two extra bedrooms for people living in council or housing association properties. Despite an onslaught from Labour and pressure from the Lib Dems and Tory backbenchers, IDS and George Osborne persisted with the hated scheme. Ed Miliband would have abolished the tax had he won the General Election.

Cuts to tax credits

The policy that finally shattered any pretence Osborne is a political genuis. IDS seemed to be with Osborne every step of the way of the controversial plan, either unaware or refusing to admit the tax credit cuts deterred people from taking on extra work.

Osborne sought to rebrand the Tories as the “workers’ party” then, in Autumn Statement 2015, announced plans to cut support for people in work – before executing a u-turn after getting spooked by the threat to his leadership hopes. The sting in the tail of the story is that some of the cuts will still be delivered through the transition to Universal Credit.

The living wage

We all remember the sight of IDS punching the air with joy as Osborne announced a “national living wage” in summer Budget 2015. The problem was, however, that it was no such thing.

The wage floor – starting at £7.20 an hour and rising to £9 by 2020 – was immediately described by the Living Wage Foundation as “not a living wage”. It was an increase in the national minimum wage – and you don’t need reminding which government introduced that in 1999.

Cuts to disability support

Osborne and Duncan Smith sparked fury with their plan to slash Personal Independence Payments (PIPs) by £4.4bn by 2020 at the same time as delivering a massive cut in capital gains tax in a Budget which, as even IDS admitted, “benefited higher-earning taxpayers”.

By Friday night Osborne was considering yet another-turn, with Government sources telling the media “we need to take time and get [the] reforms right, and that will mean looking again at these proposals”. It was too late, however, as IDS – angry over the Budget and the EU – was on the way out.

The welfare cap

Part of Osborne’s plan to don the hairshirt of austerity and put the screws on Labour’s spending plans even more, the welfare cap has been primarily a political device rather than a serious policy.

When the Tories admitted this week they would breach the cap – which covers most benefits but not the state pension – it was obvious no ministers would be sent to the Tower of London as a punishment. In an awkward Newsnight appearance Sajid Javid was unable to explain what sanctions ministers would face for missing their own legal target.

His own resignation

IDS left the Government in a typically contorted state. Outraged at this week’s Budget cuts to PIPs, which help people with disabilities pay for aids such as walking sticks, it was pointed out that he had agreed to the proposals before Osborne gave his speech on Wednesday.

The logical moment to resign would have been before the Budget but, hamstrung by either indecision or the hope of changes, he hung on before quitting on Friday evening. By the end of the week it seemed Osborne and David Cameron were ready to mount another climbdown – but IDS had already penned a damning resignation letter, perhaps fearing he would have to take the fall for the row anyway or would be forced out in a summer reshuffle after the EU referendum.