Page 354 - They Also Served

Not as showy or flamboyant as his predecessor, Duncan Smith became known as ‘the quiet man’. He oversaw large gains in the 2002 and 2003 local elections, but there were rumblings in his traditionally fractious party about his leadership style, which he countered at the Conservative Conference, stating: ‘The quiet man is here to stay – but he is turning up the volume’. However, fellow Sandhurst alumnus Crispin Blunt resigned from his shadow ministry post and Duncan Smith was further wounded over the salary he gave his wife as his diary secretary. Finally, after losing a vote of no confidence, he stepped down on 6th November 2003.
Following the 2010 general election, Duncan Smith was made secretary of state for work and pensions in the coalition government, responsible for rolling out Universal Credit. In March 2006, after over five years at the ministry, he resigned from the cabinet, unable to accept planned cuts to disability payments. He has remained busy as a back-bencher; a passionate supporter of Brexit, he ran Boris Johnson’s successful leadership campaign. His knighthood in the 2020 New Year’s Honours List was not without controversy, with a Labour activist organising a protest against it – the petition gained over 200,000 signatures. In June 2020, Duncan Smith launched the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China to coordinate responses to threats posed by the regime. In turn, he was sanctioned – accused of spreading ‘lies and disinformation’ about China.
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