British government in ‘civil war’ over Brexit, as anti-EU minister who quit speaks out

A top British eurosceptic minister who quit over welfare cuts launched a damaging attack on Prime Minister David Cameron on Sunday, exposing tensions within his government ahead of June’s referendum on EU membership.

In his first interview since resigning on Friday, Iain Duncan Smith accused Cameron of trying to reduce Britain’s budget deficit through benefit cuts which were unfairly hurting poorer voters while protecting older, richer ones.

Duncan Smith, who last month became one of the most prominent Conservatives to say he would campaign against Cameron for Britain to leave the EU on June 23, denied his shock resignation was about Europe.

But he admitted that Cameron and his finance minister and close ally George Osborne had stopped listening to him.

“This is not some secondary attempt to attack the prime minister or about Europe,” Duncan Smith said in a BBC television interview, adding he quit because he was “losing that ability to influence events from the inside”.

The resignation of Duncan Smith – a former Conservative leader often referred to simply by his three initials, IDS – is perhaps the biggest blow Cameron has suffered since being re-elected last year.

It comes just three months ahead of the referendum on EU membership on June 23 which opinion polls suggest will be closely fought.