Commons People Politics Podcast: IDS, Labour's List and Ukip Wars

For some reason, Alex Salmond called us 'reactionary' and 'right wing' this week.

It started off as the worst week of David Cameron’s six year premiership, with outgoing Work And Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith tearing lumps out of the PM and Chancellor.

In one of the most extraordinary political interviews of recent times, IDS told Andrew Marr that last week’s Budget showed we aren’t in fact all in it together, as the Chancellor George Osborne used cuts to disability benefits to fund tax cuts for higher earners and a reduction in capital gains tax.

Cameron came out fighting in the Commons in Monday, and, after managing to find his way out of whatever cupboard he had locked himself in at the beginning of the week, Osborne also took on MPs on Tuesday.

By Wednesday, Cameron had hit his stride. Armed with a leaked list of how people around Jeremy Corbyn ranked Labour MPs from “core support” to “hostile” Cameron dominated PMQs.

In a hastily deleted tweet, Labour MP John Woodcock described PMQs as a "fucking disaster" as despite the resignation of a Cabinet Minister, claims that Tories don’t care about people who don’t vote for them and a £4.4billion hole in the Budget, it was Cameron who emerged victorious from the weekly joust.

With the Tories bickering over benefits and Brexit, and Labour losing itself over lists, Ukip decided to weigh in with its own internal battle this week.

Suzanne Evans, the ex-policy chief, ex-deputy chairman, ex-parliamentary candidate, and ex-welfare spokesperson, can now add another ex to her CV – London Assembly candidate.

Her crime? Well apparently signing a petition calling for the party not to select a candidate who described homosexuals as “gay-rights storm troopers” and the “Gaystapo”, and claimed society is now “crushed under the pink jack-boot.”

Evans took the party to the High Court yesterday to try and block the suspension, but failed.

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