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Iain Duncan Smith

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Rt. Hon. Iain Duncan Smith
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Rt. Hon. Iain Duncan Smith

George Iain Duncan Smith (born April 9 1954), often referred to as IDS, is a British politician. He is Member of Parliament for the constituency of Chingford and Woodford Green. He was leader of the Conservative Party from September 12 2001 to November 6 2003. He lost a vote of confidence on October 29 and stepped down eight days later, with Michael Howard assuming the post.

On December 7 2005 Duncan Smith was appointed Chairman of the Social Justice Policy Group of the Conservative Party by David Cameron.

Contents

Early life

Duncan Smith uses the name Iain Duncan Smith and is commonly referred to as IDS. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, the son of the World War II RAF highly-decorated ace Group Captain W. G. G. Duncan Smith by his wife Pamela, a ballerina, whom he married in 1946. Pamela's maternal grandmother was Ellen Oshey, a Japanese woman. Iain Duncan Smith is therefore one-eighth Japanese. He is also a distant relative of George Bernard Shaw, the playwright and socialist.

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 elite Sandhurst military college. 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 Roman Catholicism as a teenager. He speaks Italian.

On leaving the Guards, he joined the Conservative Party and took up employment at GEC 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.

Rise to political prominence

A committed Eurosceptic, Duncan Smith was a constant thorn in the side of John Major's 1992-1997 government, doing his level best to disrupt Major's pro-European agenda at the time (something that would often be raised during his own leadership when calling 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. Hague resigned after Labour's reelection victory in the 2001 general election, and Duncan Smith was elected leader of the Conservatives over Kenneth Clarke on September 12 2001. 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 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the announcement of his win was delayed until September 13 2001.

Duncan Smith is a Catholic convert, and his election led to criticism by some anti-Catholic groups of the supposed Catholicisation of British politics (Charles Kennedy, the former leader of the Liberal Democrats is a Catholic; Prime Minister Tony Blair is married to a Catholic, Cherie Booth, and regularly attends Mass in Westminster Cathedral). Ironically, one of the responsibilities of the Prime Minister is the selection of Church of England bishops for appointment by the Queen. Britain has never had a Catholic Prime Minister, and the Catholic Relief Act 1829 makes it illegal for a Roman Catholic to directly or indirectly advise the Sovereign on appointments in the Church of England. However, in modern Britain, the faith of the Prime Minister is not as important an issue as it once was.

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 Guide to Parliament for the previous ten years. The CV claimed that he had attended the University of Perugia when he had in fact only attended a series of short private language courses across the road from the university, and a claim that he had attended the prestigious-sounding Durnsford College of Management turned out to refer to some weekend courses at GEC's staff college.

The downfall of Duncan Smith

Duncan Smith's election as party leader was overshadowed by the events of September 11, 2001. He proved not to be a particularly gifted public speaker in the rowdy atmosphere of Prime Minister's Questions 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"). Few doubted Duncan Smith's decency and honesty. However, these virtues seemed insufficient for the electorate and opinion polls stubbornly refused to budge in the Conservatives' favour. 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 with his much-quoted line, 'never underestimate the determination of a quiet man'. Unfortunately the line was as derided as it was admired. The following year, his conference speech appeared to have abandoned this technique in favour of an aggressive hard-man act that few found convincing (even if the loyal party members in the hall punctuated the speech with several standing ovations). The most remembered soundbite 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 continued presence as party leader. On 21 February 2003, The Independent newspaper published a story saying that a number of MPs were attempting to start the process of declaring a vote of confidence in Mr Duncan Smith. Apparently many Conservative MPs considered IDS to be "unelectable."

Around this time, Duncan Smith became the subject of scathing criticism on the popular British satirical programme Have I Got News For You. In particular, Paul Merton insisted that he was in fact two people, Iain and Duncan Smith: the first twins to share joint leadership of a major British political party. Indeed, when Duncan Smith's full name of George Iain Duncan Smith was read during one episode, Merton asked, bemused, "What, there's three of them?"

These worries came to a head in October 2003. For a vote to occur, 15 percent of Conservative MPs (at this point 25 MPs) had to write to the Chairman of the 1922 Committee 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 October 29, or to withdraw their challenge. He also stated that he would not step down if a vote was called. Over the next two days a few prominent Conservative backbenchers confirmed to the press that they had sent letters.

By 28 October, 25 Conservative MPs had indeed demanded the vote. After this was announced, Duncan Smith made an appearance in front of Conservative Party headquarters in Smith Square, where he stated that he was going to "absolutely" contest the vote. The vote of confidence was held on 29 October. Duncan Smith lost, 90-75.

Since 2003

Since leaving from office, he has established the Centre for Social Justice, a centre-right thinktank which aims to work to solve the problems facing Britain's inner cities. It has been successful in ensuring Social Justice is a significant part of the evolving Conservative party agenda.

On the 7 December 2005 Duncan Smith was appointed Chairman of the Social Justice Policy Group. The group will "study the causes and consequences of poverty in Britain and will seek practical ideas to empower the least well-off," and is one of several set up by the new Conservative Party leader David Cameron, Duncan Smith will be joind in this task by Deputy Chair Debbie Scott the Chief Executive the charity Tomorrow's People.

He was re-elected comfortably in Chingford and Woodford Green at the 2005 General Election, almost doubling his majority, and remains a backbencher for the Conservative Party.

On 6 November, shortly after being forced from office, his novel The Devil's Tune was released. This book received heavily critical reviews, perhaps the most famous from Sam Leith in The Daily Telegraph, which said, "Really, it's terrible... Terrible, terrible, terrible." Unsurprisingly, the book was never published in paperback.

IDS Shadow Cabinet, 18 September 2001

Junior Shadow Ministers

IDS Shadow Cabinet Reshuffle, 3 May 2002

Explanation

There was a minor reshuffle of the Shadow Cabinet due to the sacking of Ann Winterton as Shadow Rural Affairs Minister. Ann Winterton was sacked due to a racist speech at a rugby club, claiming that 'Pakis' were '10 a penny'. Winterton refused to resign, and was therefore sacked by IDS.

Shadow Cabinet

Junior Shadow Ministers

Changes from 18 September 2001

IDS Shadow Cabinet Reshuffle, 23 July 2002

Junior Shadow Ministers

Changes from 3 May 2002

IDS Shadow Cabinet Reshuffle, 1 July 2003 - Leadership Challenge

Junior Shadow Ministers

Changes from 23 July 2002

External links

|- style="text-align: center;" |- style="text-align: center;" |width="30%" align="center" rowspan=""|Preceded by:
William Hague

|width="30%" align="center" rowspan=""|Succeeded by:
Michael Howard |- |-

 

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