Iain Duncan Smith among three MPs in new year honours list

[dutchman]

Former Tory vice-chairman Bob Neill and Labour’s Diana Johnson also receive honours



Iain Duncan Smith, the former Conservative leader and architect of the universal credit benefits system, is among three serving MPs to be handed titles in an honours list low on political figures this year.

Duncan Smith, an MP since 1992 and Tory leader from 2001 to 2003, was awarded a knighthood alongside Bob Neill, the MP for Bromley and Chislehurst and former Conservative party vice-chairman.

The Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull North, Diana Johnson, has been made a dame, in part because of her campaigning for a full inquiry, which is currently taking place, into how contaminated blood transfusions infected thousands of people with hepatitis C and HIV.

While it is not uncommon for long-serving MPs, particularly former party leaders, to receive honours, Duncan Smith’s knighthood was met with criticism from opposition parties because of his record on benefits.

Labour criticised the decision to honour “the primary architect of the cruel universal credit system, which has pushed thousands of people into poverty”, while the Liberal Democrat MP Christine Jardine said the award “beggars belief”.

As work and pensions secretary for six years from 2010, Duncan Smith was the central figure as significant cuts were made to benefit and disability entitlements during the peak of the Conservative-led austerity period.

He faced particular criticism for a botched system of assessing people for disability payments and for helping preside over a rhetorical culture centred on “shirkers” and “scroungers”, which charities said led to an increase in abuse against disabled people.

In the role – which he eventually quit in protest at further planned benefits cuts – Duncan Smith also oversaw the beginnings of universal credit, his personal brainchild for a system to replace a series of working-age benefits with one flexible payment.

However, UC has proved deeply problematic and slow to roll out, with particular criticism about delays to initial payments, which charities said contributed to an increase in the number of people needing to use foodbanks.