BBC NEWS | UK | Politics | Timeline: Duncan Smith's leadership

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

One-Minute World News

News services
Your news when you want it

RELATED BBC SITES

Last Updated: Thursday, 30 October, 2003, 11:07 GMT

E-mail this to a friend

Printable version

Timeline: Duncan Smith's leadership

13 September, 2001

Iain Duncan Smith elected Tory leader.
Iain Duncan Smith took the Tory top job after roundly beating Ken Clarke in a ballot of party members. It was the first time the party's leader had been voted for by the party rank and file. But he faced a very difficult task. The party he inherited from William Hague was demoralised after two landslide election defeats at the hands of Labour. And the dominance of the September 11 attacks on the news agenda made it hard for him to raise his profile with the voting public.

Watch/Listen:

10 October, 2001

Duncan Smith makes his first conference speech as leader.

Watch/Listen:

17 December, 2001

IDS admits he is not overconfident of winning the next election.

2 May, 2002

Tories make small gains in local elections.
Presiding over his first local elections as leader Iain Duncan Smith saw his party make modest gains. The Conservatives narrowly beat Labour in the overall share of the vote and came out of the poll controlling nine more councils than they started with but these successes were far from dramatic. Frontbencher Michael Ancram called the performance quotworkmanlikequot.

5 June, 2002

Tory strategist calls the party less popular than the euro.

23 July, 2002

David Davis is sacked as party chairman.
David Davis was sacked after less than a year in the job of party chairman. He was kept on the frontbench team and was given a new job shadowing the Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. Davis had been one of Duncan Smith's rivals for the party leadership and press reports at the time suggested the two men did not see eyetoeye.

7 October, 2002

Theresa May the new party chairman tells says the party it has been seen as the nasty party by some voters.

Watch/Listen:

10 October, 2002

Duncan Smith refers to himself as the Quiet Man in his conference speech.

Watch/Listen:

4 November, 2002

John Bercow resigns from Tory frontbench over party policy on gays and adoption.

5 November, 2002

IDS tells the party it must unite or die as speculation mounts over his future.
The first major crisis of Duncan Smith's leadership saw him take decisive action after a rebellion over Tory policy on adoption left him looking undermined. That former leadership candidates Michael Portillo and Ken Clarke had both defied the party whip on the issue did not help matters. He reacted strongly to the revolt telling the party sternly quotMy message is simple and stark unite or diequot.

Watch/Listen:

1 May, 2003

The Tories gain over 30 councils in the local elections but frontbencher Crispin Blunt calls for a leadership election.

Watch/Listen:

7 May, 2003

Tory chief executive Barry Legg resigns.

9 October, 2003

Duncan Smith makes a plea for party unity in his conference speech.

Watch/Listen:

13 October, 2003

Parliamentary inquiry begins into IDS employment of his wife as his secretary.

Watch/Listen:

22 October, 2003

The Tory partys biggest donor calls on IDS to resign.

27 October, 2003

Leadership election is called for by Tory MP Derek Conway.

Watch/Listen:

28 October, 2003

A leadership election is triggered Duncan Smith vows to fight on.
After just over two years in charge Iain Duncan Smith faced a confidence vote on his leadership. Calls for a vote by 25 MPs triggered the process leaving the relatively new leader fighting for his political life. Undeterred he vowed to fight on and told the party's MPs that he was quotnot a quitterquot.