In a speech to right-wing think tank the Centre for Social Justice, which he helped set up, Mr Duncan Smith likened the receipt of benefits to slavery, compared his role in cutting welfare with the work of abolitionists, defended the bedroom tax, praised the Benefits Street programme which has been accused of caricaturing the deprived community it depicts, and massaged his department's much-criticised record on Universal Credit.

The Work and Pensions Secretary also claimed that policies and pronouncements which anti-poverty campaigners say amount to attacks on the poorest and most vulnerable in society represent a "cultural shift", and declared that cutting the welfare budget was necessary to create a more secure society.

Trades Union Congress (TUC) General Secretary Frances O’Grady reacted with astonishment to these claims. “Iain Duncan Smith’s claim to have made people feel more secure through his cuts to the welfare safety net is ridiculous," she said. “Across the country people fear the bedroom tax, and harsh and unfair disability assessments. They are also worried that however hard they have worked and contributed, they will soon be made to wait five weeks before receiving any benefit if they lose their job. “The truth is that millions of hard-working families have suffered from tax credit cuts and the child benefit freeze, and a whole new generation now fear future cuts to help for young people.” She concluded: “Iain Duncan Smith’s welfare reforms have led to elderly and disabled people being kicked out of their homes for failing to pay the hated bedroom tax, while dying cancer sufferers have faced benefit sanctions for not finding work. To compare this government-directed cruelty to the abolition of slavery is frankly offensive.”

Churches and charities have also continued to challenge the government and Mr Duncan Smith on its misrepresentation of poor people and claimants. Read more here