Plot to ditch IDS by time of Queen's Speech (UK Tory power struggle)

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Plot to ditch IDS by time of Queen's Speech
By Andy McSmith, Political Editor
19 October 2003

Leading Tories have calculated that Iain Duncan Smith will have been ousted from the party leadership before the Queen's Speech on 26 November, leaving his deputy, Michael Ancram, to face Tony Blair on one of the two most important occasions in the parliamentary calendar.

One forecast yesterday that letters from MPs calling for a vote of confidence in Mr Duncan Smith will "fall like snow" once the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards has completed his investigation into the salary the Tory leader paid his wife, Betsy.

Others want to strike before Sir Philip Mawer has delivered his report, arguing that the Tory leader should be removed for political reasons, and that the allegations about his wife are an irrelevance.

About 12 Tory MPs are thought to have written already to Sir Michael Spicer, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee. As soon as that figure reaches 25, Mr Duncan Smith will face a vote on his future by his fellow MPs, which would almost certainly end his leadership.

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/story.jsp?story=454871