![](https://static.standard.co.uk/s3fs-public/thumbnails/image/2013/04/03/15/Iain-Duncan-Smith.jpg?crop=8:5,smart&quality=75&auto=webp&width=1024)
Iain Duncan Smith
Getty Images
3 April 2013
As the numbers signing a petition to have Iain Duncan Smith live on £53 a week rivals Tory party membership numbers, will no one ride to his rescue?
Edwina Currie, former Health Minister, said she could live on £53 a week. “Asked her to talk to Channel 5 News about it,” tweets producer Nick Frost. “She wanted 500 quid.”
And what about Michael Portillo, who had some experience of a tight budget after living as a single parent on £80 a week for a BBC documentary a decade ago when IDS was party leader? “I’m keeping out of this," he wrote to the Londoner.