Picture Credits: Image by A. H. from Pixabay
Iain Duncan Smith, the father of the ‘heartless’ Universal Credit system, is to receive a knighthood as part of the New Year’s Honours list, it has been reported.
The former Tory leader and long-serving MP is most notably known for his austere welfare policies. Human rights advocates, opposition politicians and activists have denounced his past welfare policies as inhumane and brutish.
He served as the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions for almost six years from May 2010 to March 2016, a time frame which saw the implementation of the so-called Bedroom Tax, benefits cap and Universal Credit.
The most damning criticism of his and his party’s policies came from the United Nations in a scathing report earlier this year that criticised the Conservative’s cuts to “the social safety net”.
With news emerging that he is to receive a knighthood, activists, politicians and journalists are criticising this move as an endorsement of Iain Duncan Smith’s divisive policies.
In response to this news, Natalie Bennett, the former leader of the Green Party tweeted that this knighthood is “a reward for inflicting immense suffering, fear and death”.
Angela Rayner, a prominent Labour MP also denounced the knighthood as “as dishonouring the honours”.
The most brutal criticism came from Faiza Shaheen who lost against Iain Duncan Smith in the general election earlier this month. While responding to her critics, Faiza Shaheen tweeted: “I am very sore about what my mum & 000s of other sick & disabled people went through in the last few years of life because of IDS’s heartless policies”.
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