David Cameron, who has staked his political future on keeping Britain inside the EU, is due to face the House of Commons later in a session that's meant to be about last week's migration summit in Brussels.
London:
British Prime Minister David Cameron sought on Monday to impose discipline on his warring Conservative Party, after a Cabinet resignation - ostensibly about unpopular welfare reforms - blew the top off simmering divisions over the European Union.
Cameron, who has staked his political future on keeping Britain inside the EU, is due to face the House of Commons later in a session that's meant to be about last week's migration summit in Brussels.
However, the resignation of Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith means the debate will likely be dominated by welfare cuts and especially Europe - an issue that has divided the Conservatives since Britain joined the EU in the 1970s.
Duncan Smith, who has pushed through big changes to the country's welfare system over the past six years, dramatically quit late Friday, accusing the government of targeting the poor for cuts while protecting pensions for the better-off. He said last week's budget, which included a 4 billion-pound ($5.8 billion) cut to disability benefits, was the last straw.
"I am passionate about trying to improve the quality of life for those in difficult circumstances," Duncan Smith said Sunday. "Now, I want to do that and I want my party to do that. But I felt that I'm losing my ability to influence that."
The resignation of Duncan Smith - a former Conservative leader whose nickname when at the helm between 2001 and 2003 was "The Quiet Man" - has set off a firestorm in his party for reasons that have little to do with welfare reform.
Duncan Smith is among a group of senior Conservatives who want Britain to leave the European Union, and his resignation has heaped pressure on Cameron and Treasury chief George Osborne - both of whom want the UK to stay in the EU. The country will decide in a June 23 referendum whether to remain in the 28-nation bloc.
Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said Duncan Smith's move would bolster the "out" campaign.
"I think it reinforces the public view that David Cameron and George Osborne appear to be disconnected from public opinion," he said. Bale added that the Duncan Smith's accusations add to a perception that Cameron and Osborne are "taking from the poor and disabled and giving to the rich."
Duncan Smith's resignation was followed by a series of strikingly barbed and partisan remarks as senior Tories blamed one another for the mess. Pensions Minister Ros Altmann, who worked under
Duncan Smith, accused him of wanting "to do maximum damage to the party leadership in order to further his campaign to try to get Britain to leave the EU."
But Employment Minister Priti Patel said Duncan Smith had resigned because he was "extremely passionate about the principle of social justice."
"I fundamentally believe that this is not about Europe," she told the BBC.
The row is a particular blow to Osborne, who has been Treasury chief since 2010 and aspires to succeed Cameron as Conservative leader.
Osborne's primary economic policy has been to reduce Britain's deficit through a cocktail of spending cuts and tax increases, but Duncan Smith's resignation could blow a hole in his cost-cutting plans.
Duncan Smith's replacement, Stephen Crabb, is expected to announce that the government is dropping the plan to cut 4 billion pounds from benefits for disabled people.
The government has stressed that its austerity medicine has been shared fairly across all income brackets - its mantra has been "we're all in this together."
But Duncan Smith said pensions, which account for more than half of total welfare payments, have been untouched while billions had been cut from benefits paid to working-age people and the most vulnerable.
He said it gave the impression that the government did not care about the working poor, "because they don't vote for us."
The Conservative feuding drew comparisons to the party's fractious period under Prime Minister John Major, which ended when they were ousted by Tony Blair's Labour Party in 1997. The Conservatives remained out of office until 2010.
But the Labour Party is weakened, with a left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who is mistrusted by many of his own lawmakers.
Steven Fielding, director of the Center for British Politics at the University of Nottingham, said that for the Conservatives "it's a terrible crisis - but they're not facing Tony Blair. They're not facing a united Labour Party."
The row at the top of the government weighed on the British pound. In mid-afternoon trading in London, it was down 0.6 percent at $1.4388.
Kit Juckes, foreign exchange strategist at Societe Generale, said the resignation of Duncan Smith adds "another layer of political risk" to the pound.
"Politics is going to be more important than economics for the next three months," he said.
Cameron, who has staked his political future on keeping Britain inside the EU, is due to face the House of Commons later in a session that's meant to be about last week's migration summit in Brussels.
However, the resignation of Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith means the debate will likely be dominated by welfare cuts and especially Europe - an issue that has divided the Conservatives since Britain joined the EU in the 1970s.
Duncan Smith, who has pushed through big changes to the country's welfare system over the past six years, dramatically quit late Friday, accusing the government of targeting the poor for cuts while protecting pensions for the better-off. He said last week's budget, which included a 4 billion-pound ($5.8 billion) cut to disability benefits, was the last straw.
"I am passionate about trying to improve the quality of life for those in difficult circumstances," Duncan Smith said Sunday. "Now, I want to do that and I want my party to do that. But I felt that I'm losing my ability to influence that."
The resignation of Duncan Smith - a former Conservative leader whose nickname when at the helm between 2001 and 2003 was "The Quiet Man" - has set off a firestorm in his party for reasons that have little to do with welfare reform.
Duncan Smith is among a group of senior Conservatives who want Britain to leave the European Union, and his resignation has heaped pressure on Cameron and Treasury chief George Osborne - both of whom want the UK to stay in the EU. The country will decide in a June 23 referendum whether to remain in the 28-nation bloc.
Tim Bale, professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, said Duncan Smith's move would bolster the "out" campaign.
"I think it reinforces the public view that David Cameron and George Osborne appear to be disconnected from public opinion," he said. Bale added that the Duncan Smith's accusations add to a perception that Cameron and Osborne are "taking from the poor and disabled and giving to the rich."
Duncan Smith's resignation was followed by a series of strikingly barbed and partisan remarks as senior Tories blamed one another for the mess. Pensions Minister Ros Altmann, who worked under
Duncan Smith, accused him of wanting "to do maximum damage to the party leadership in order to further his campaign to try to get Britain to leave the EU."
But Employment Minister Priti Patel said Duncan Smith had resigned because he was "extremely passionate about the principle of social justice."
"I fundamentally believe that this is not about Europe," she told the BBC.
The row is a particular blow to Osborne, who has been Treasury chief since 2010 and aspires to succeed Cameron as Conservative leader.
Osborne's primary economic policy has been to reduce Britain's deficit through a cocktail of spending cuts and tax increases, but Duncan Smith's resignation could blow a hole in his cost-cutting plans.
Duncan Smith's replacement, Stephen Crabb, is expected to announce that the government is dropping the plan to cut 4 billion pounds from benefits for disabled people.
The government has stressed that its austerity medicine has been shared fairly across all income brackets - its mantra has been "we're all in this together."
But Duncan Smith said pensions, which account for more than half of total welfare payments, have been untouched while billions had been cut from benefits paid to working-age people and the most vulnerable.
He said it gave the impression that the government did not care about the working poor, "because they don't vote for us."
The Conservative feuding drew comparisons to the party's fractious period under Prime Minister John Major, which ended when they were ousted by Tony Blair's Labour Party in 1997. The Conservatives remained out of office until 2010.
But the Labour Party is weakened, with a left-wing leader, Jeremy Corbyn, who is mistrusted by many of his own lawmakers.
Steven Fielding, director of the Center for British Politics at the University of Nottingham, said that for the Conservatives "it's a terrible crisis - but they're not facing Tony Blair. They're not facing a united Labour Party."
The row at the top of the government weighed on the British pound. In mid-afternoon trading in London, it was down 0.6 percent at $1.4388.
Kit Juckes, foreign exchange strategist at Societe Generale, said the resignation of Duncan Smith adds "another layer of political risk" to the pound.
"Politics is going to be more important than economics for the next three months," he said.
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