Duncan Smith tells website: ‘I’m not going to be accused by you’ over mental health deaths
For once, Iain Duncan Smith wasn’t refusing to answer questions from Vox Political.
This time he was snubbing John Pring’s excellent Disability News Service, after being involved in an impromptu interview at the Conservative Party Conference.
He tried to give Mr Pring the usual brush-off.
Let’s hope that Police Scotland go through with the idea of prosecuting both Duncan Smith and his former colleague, Chris Grayling, over the deaths that have happened while their policies were in force.
Iain Duncan Smith has denied responsibility for the deaths of people with mental health conditions who took their own lives after being unfairly found fit for work by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).
Duncan Smith was speaking to Disability News Service (DNS) at the Tory party annual conference in Birmingham about his failure to act on a coroner’s written warning in 2010 on the need to address particular safety concerns with the work capability assessment (WCA).
In the unplanned interview, which took place in a busy foyer in Birmingham’s International Conference Centre, the former work and pensions secretary claimed repeatedly that five independent reviews of the WCA commissioned by DWP under his leadership had led to a “much improved system”.
But DNS asked Duncan Smith about a report written by coroner Tom Osborne, who had ruled that the trigger for the suicide of Stephen Carré in January 2010 had been DWP’s rejection of his appeal against being found “fit for work”.
Duncan Smith (pictured shortly after the interview) repeatedly attempted to avoid answering questions on the coroner’s letter, but eventually admitted that he remembered the Stephen Carré case.
He said: “I remember the case and I remember the work we did and we had five reviews so I’m not going to be accused by you of anything.”
Source: Duncan Smith tells DNS: ‘I’m not going to be accused by you’ over mental health deaths
ADVERT
Join the Vox Political Facebook page.
If you have appreciated this article, don’t forget to share it using the buttons at the bottom of this page. Politics is about everybody – so let’s try to get everybody involved!
Vox Political needs your help!
If you want to support this site
(but don’t want to give your money to advertisers)
you can make a one-off donation here:
Buy Vox Political books so we can continue
fighting for the facts.
The Livingstone Presumption is now available
in eBook format here:
Health Warning: Government! is now available
in either print or eBook format here:
The first collection, Strong Words and Hard Times,
is still available in either print or eBook format here:
Duncan Smith is mental who could do what he did and be sane if there is a true justice system in this country he should be in jail on Human Rights, Is this the reason the tories want to do away with Human Rights ??
smith has known this, possibly the reason he resigned and put the blame on osbourne, grayling, infact any one but himself he is well known for his lies
You are responsible mr smith…..your first duty is to protect the people….Now let’s do a pertition to get justice.They said we wouldn’t leave Europe,but now we are.They also said we couldn’t get Cameron out,but we did….
He really IS a piece of work, that thinks he can get away with anything.
I really would love to know how the investigation is progressing!
If he were a real human being at the very least he should lose sleep at night over his and his colleagues actions …. or in these fatal cases non-action. I think I would prefer he and his faceless mates should face a proper and robust police review of all that has gone on.
oh dear oh dear it wasnt me that caused it i was only following orders hmmmm
Was he being accused of anything in the interview? He was asked to explain his action/inaction following receipt of the Coroners letter. Eventually he gave a sort of answer. Why he did he not leave it at that? To then go on and say that he would not be accused of anything by the reporter really showed that he was squirming arches implication of doing something wrong even if it wasn’t overtly said. He always reminds me of an angry bumblebee.
I also sincerely hope that the Scottish Police go through with it & also take down the Conservatives who think it’s right to kill by Gov. n lies.
“He said: “I remember the case and I remember the work we did and we had five reviews so I’m not going to be accused by you of anything.”
How about if hundreds of thousands make the same accusations? Delegating responsibility is not an option anymore than white washing with biased reviews by parties serving a common agenda, not focused on the plight of the vulnerable but the vindication of government policy.
Iain Duncan Smith’s memory of the Stephen Carré suicide clearly shows his concern and fear of the implications of the DWP decision making process. Five reviews, would indicate that each previous one found the decision process was correct under the “much improved” rules IDS had formulated, the same condemning rules under which many suicides have happened. Had the process been correct, why else would you need to conduct five reviews. There will be a clear and unequivocal paper trail for every review & suicide. The rumored shredding & data removal exercise will have been futile in attempting to cover these crimes, indeed, these will have left their own incriminating fingerprints which IDS & Co is now powerless to interfere with without perverting the course of justice. Police Scotland are no doubt inundated with leads, they may well have to limit their investigation to a few of the strongest examples, but ultimately, only one is required. If other loved ones of these victims has the strength and conviction to carry this to conclusion together with any and all authoritative investigations we will see justice served.
The Arrogance of this Pig Headed, deeply unpleasant Man is quite breath taking, yes the Scots appear to be more tuned in concerning events surrounding Mr Smiths running of The Department of Work and Pensions, I suggest anybody who has lost a loved one due to this Mans gross incompetence , contact Police Scotland asap with the details .
my view on this is that if he does not want to be accused then stand up in court and defend himself against the accusations, the truth is he cannot and knows it, his policy has worsened vunerable adults across the complete spectrum, having one to sign on after the wca assessor stated they don’t suffer anxiety and then had a panic attack on a first floor of the job centre due to that wrong decision, him and anyone responsible for the consistent of failings from the assessor to the decision maker should face criminal action for there case not the half waffled complaints procedure they have,which once used ends up in a letter stating thanks for pointing the issue out, the assessor will be told, we will learn form this and then a year later another assessor who is just as thick as the last one then does the same mistake,he not only needs to be struck of from public office but some nice cushy time in Barlinnie jail to atone for his ignorance.
Duncan Smith should have been subjected to a thorough Fraud Squad investigation back in 2003, but I still hope he will be put before the Courts in Scotland. However, I’d better not hold my breath.
I just hope I live long enough to see a successful prosecution of IDS, his fellow officers, all his lieutenants, his hit squads and all those at the very top who planned, organised and ensured the ‘execution’ of this evil assault on sick, disabled and jobless people at the beginning of the 21st century.
While I don’t want to labor the point, the notion that suicide is a result of mental health conditions is unfounded. I have personal experience of a friend that took his own life while striving to obtain / retain welfare benefits he should have been entitled to.
He was solidly of sound mind, and discussed that suicide was the only logical way out. I found this hard to accept, until he had explained, (through a 3rd party) just how he reasoned the predicament. He had no money, he had no food, he was on the verge of losing his accommodation. He was also to proud to go into a shelter or beg on the streets. This man was a previously successful individual that had worked hard and paid his taxes.
He fell at the blade of ID’S sword as surely as if cut down in a hail of blows delivered by the DWP. This was his fate, a hard working person, applauded by Cameron, the fuhrer, if not the architect. I just hope the criminals that allowed this to happen are punished in their lifetime, rather than in history, as some others evading justice have managed.
If he was too proud to do particular things for his own survival, then I’m not sure you can argue that he was of sound mind.
The point is that the Conservatives drive people to it, though – and he seems a solid example of that.
Did he leave any documentary evidence blaming the government?