Iain Duncan Smith brands breadline petition a ‘complete stunt’
Work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith has branded a /news/2013/04/02/petition-work-and-pensions-secretary-iain-duncan-smith-live-53-week-hits-over-120000%20">petition launched by campaigners to have him live on benefits of £53 a week
More than 310,000 people have now signed up to an online petition calling on Duncan Smith to take up the challenge but speaking to his local paper, the minister declined saying: “This is a complete stunt which distracts attention from the welfare reforms which are much more important and which I have been working hard to get done.
“I have been unemployed twice in my life so I have already done this. I know what it is like to live on the breadline.”
Reformers have been angered by the antics of opponents to the benefits changes with chancellor George Osborne insisting that Britain’s welfare system was ‘fundamentally broken’.
The government is expecting to win election support from hard-pressed taxpayers as a result of their efforts although an alliance of churches and charities have expressed vocal opposition.