British work and pensions secretary resigns over cuts

Iain Duncan Smith, the work and pensions secretary in the British government, has resigned over 'indefensible' cuts proposed by the Treasury to the benefits for the disabled.

Smith said Saturday in a statement that he was “unable to watch passively whilst certain policies are enacted in order to meet the fiscal self imposed restraints that I believe are...distinctly political rather than in the national economic interest.”

He said he had come to believe that changes proposed in the budget to the benefits to the disabled “are compromised too far.”

“While they are defensible in narrow terms, given the continuing deficit, they are not defensible in the way they were placed within a Budget that benefits higher earning taxpayer,” said Smith in his statement.

Based on a plan in the British government, the Personal Independence Payments (PIP) is to be cut by 30 pounds a week. The opposition has threatened to reject the measure in the parliament as it could affect almost 400,000 disabled people across the country.

Smith, a high-profile member of Prime Minister David Cameron’s ruling Conservative Party, hailed the government’s achievements in "deficit reduction, corporate competitiveness, education reforms and devolution of power,” but questioned the way the cuts have been prepared, saying he doubts that the administration has made sure that “we are all in this together.”

The decision to cut benefits came after British Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne reduced in his annual budget the corporation and capital gains taxes and removed the earnings threshold at which the higher rate of income tax is payable while warning the economy would grow more slowly than previously forecast.

Pundits said Smith’s resignation was less to do with benefit cuts and was more related to his discomfort with the top echelon in the Conservative Party over their support for Britain remaining in the European Union.

Smith, along with some key members of the party, including Justice Secretary Michael Gove and Leader of the House of Commons Chris Grayling, are among the staunch advocates of the so-called Brexit. The division over the issue of Europe seems to be reaching unprecedented levels ahead of a referendum in June.

Commentators said Smith’s resignation could badly hurt Osborne’s ambitions for replacing Cameron as the next British premier. That would mean that Osborne’s main rival, Mayor of London Boris Johnson, also a staunch supporter of Brexit, would have a better chance to win over the Eurosceptic grassroots of the party.

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