POLITICAL careers often have a second act, but seldom a third or fourth, the reason for which became all too apparent yesterday when former Tory leader and work and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith sought to enter the fray once more.

Duncan Smith, who quit as work and pensions secretary earlier this year in what many saw as an unsuccessful attempt to position himself as a key figure in the toxic Brexit debate, resurfaced yesterday to criticise, of all things, welfare cuts.

The former cabinet member — whose tenure was widely seen as an utter fiasco, marked by repeated cock-ups and delays hitting the implementation of his universal credit programme and his department’s spectacular failure to balance the books — attacked government plans to slash billions of pounds from the scheme.