TORY Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith was branded a trickster yesterday after falsely suggesting that thousands of smaller homes were available to people hit by the bedroom tax.

Twice he accused concerned Labour MPs of “scaremongering” when challenged on the hated policy, which ramps up rent for council tenants deemed to have a “spare room.”

But he left Labour MPs gobsmacked as he spat out “bizarre” figures to back up his claim.

Birmingham MP Jack Dromey accused Mr Duncan Smith of “a cruel confidence trick to pretend that people can move” after the Tory said there “are 63,500 one and two-bedroom properties” in the city.

The minister also told Wigan MP Yvonne Fovargue that there were “something like 15,000” such homes in her town.

“There are many houses there,” he claimed smugly.

But in both cases the minister was quoting the total housing stock — not those available to those wishing to downsize to avoid the bedroom tax.

Ms Fovargue accused Mr Duncan Smith of “classic misdirection.

“It’s bizarre — those houses already have people in them,” she said.

“The policy is wrong and Labour is absolutely right to say one of the first things we’ll do is abolish it.”

Angry Mr Dromey told the Star: “IDS, who once feigned a conversion to compassionate Conservatism, is oblivious to the consequences of his actions on hundreds of thousands.”

He added: “1,529 victims live in my constituency of Erdington — there are but a handful of one-bedroom properties available.”