Duncan Smith launches “fightback”
Assailed Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith has come out fighting on Sunday, slamming plotters for leaving the party “staring into the abyss.”
Mr Duncan Smith, who is now likely to face a vote of no confidence in his leadership next week, has vowed to fight on.
Writing in The Mail on Sunday, Mr Duncan Smith said the Tory party was unsettled by a “small number of malcontents”.
“The Conservative Party is staring into the abyss and if it takes that leap, I have to tell it – as its leader – the outcome will be very grave,” he wrote.
A leadership contest, he warned, would leave the Conservatives will little chance of winning the next general election.
The Mail on Sunday claims Baroness Thatcher viewed Mr Duncan Smith as the worst leader in Tory history.
The Sunday Times is saying today that David Maclean, the Tory party chief whip, will tell Duncan Smith next week that his helmsmanship is “unsustainable.”
Elsewhere, The News of the World claimed party chairman Theresa May considers Mr Duncan Smith likely to quit this week.
Duncan Smith will appear on the BBC’s Breakfast with Frost programme today, in what his allies are calling the start of his “fightback.”
