Under David Cameron, it was sometimes tricky to tell who was in charge at the DWP. Iain Duncan Smith favoured a softer approach to welfare reform while over at the Treasury, George Osborne’s interventions were more nakedly political. It all came to a head in March when IDS resigned after Osborne announced £4bn of cuts to disability benefits. That was just over six months ago and seems like a distant memory in the pre-referendum haze. Yet it’s rapidly becoming clear that under Damian Green, things will be very different at the DWP.
As with other areas of Government, Theresa May’s work and pensions secretary has marked a signal departure with what came before. For one, Green is in charge. That might sound like a mute point but with Hammond at the Treasury taking the form of a less imperial chancellor than Osborne, the weird duopoly at the top is now gone.
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