Despite languishing in opinion poll doldrums, Britain's Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith tells Frank Millar that Tony Blair is vulnerable in several areas of domestic policy
Iain Duncan Smith is Britain's "never" man. Not for him William Hague's fudge formula ruling out British membership of the euro for the lifetime of the next parliament.
When they elected him to succeed Hague last September, the Conservatives embraced a leader who says No and means it. Period.
Less clear is the position of the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, and his Chancellor, Gordon Brown. What does the Tory leader think is going on inside the cabinet? Are Blair and Brown divided, as elements of Britain's euro-sceptic press believe and fervently hope?
Mr Duncan Smith thinks not. "I think what we're dealing with is cosmetics. I think Tony Blair and those who think they know his mind want to make this leap as soon as they can because the truth is they believe in it in principle.
"Now we're only dealing with timing, so if there's a split it's on the peripheral issue of when you do it. That's not much of a debate if you ask me. And it shows you the nature of who they are that they get so worked-up about something on timing rather than principle. No, I think Gordon Brown's policy is to go in, as is Tony Blair's."
The reality, he says, "is we actually have a government that will take the country into the euro. The only reason they don't want to do it right now is because they don't think they could win the referendum." That, he asserts, "is not a brave government, that's a cowardly government".
But does he think they will resolve their difficulty in this parliament?
"They'd resolve it magically the moment they begin to think they have a chance of winning it," he insists. Nor does Mr Duncan Smith agree with the Liberal Democrat leader, Charles Kennedy, that legislation allowing a referendum next year would require a decision this autumn.
The truth, he says, is that the government could "ram" its legislation through parliament in no time at all. "When the government decides to go, they'll go quickly."
Plainly, if they so decide it will be in the belief that they can over- turn the opinion polls and win. Can they? "It is my view that he will lose a referendum on the euro, and it's my job to ensure that he does," comes the trenchant reply.
"I would then take the failed referendum and nail it to him and say 'This is the man who wanted to break your involvement with your currency, this man wanted to throw away your future, and he did it only for personal aggrandisement'."
The oddity is that while the Conservatives appear to have majority support here, two election defeats have left them seemingly frightened to make the running on the issue. IDS, as he is often known, acknowledges the problem "that we became perceived as a party that really only had about two issues on which we took any interest."
His job is to reconnect the party with the issues "that worry the public for the most part in their lives". He believes he's being helped by a Blair government that is "clearly failing" on the key issues of street crime, health, education and transport, and which is in the process of acquiring its own reputation for "sleaze".
Yet Mr Blair's lead in the polls continues upwards. Mr Duncan Smith disputes this. "I'm not expecting headline figures to change, because the public knows there's not an election coming up, they're not really focused on that. What they are focusing on is specific issues."
He insists: "On the indicators on health, education, is the government sleazier, should he have sacked [Transport Secretary Stephen] Byers . . . all those indicators are showing the public actually is angry with the government."
The British people are currently forming an opinion about the government, he continues. "For- ming an opinion about us, as part of that, comes later."
He also offers "government" when asked if there is a single issue which might trip up Mr Blair and incline the public to see him as the credible leader of an alternative administration.
"I think the prime minister is already tripping himself up in government because . . . they rarely talk about what they've done, they talk about what they're going to do. They've got five-year plans, 10-year plans. Well, we've all got plans. When you close them down what you find is little or nothing has been delivered."
If Mr Duncan Smith is the "never" man on the euro, critics might say by contrast he would never say never to America. Would he set any limits to Britain's support for the US-led war on international terror? The former soldier is unflinching
"I think as long as America acts in what coincides with British interests then we should back them . . . it's in our interest to look carefully now at Iraq and Iran, and others too."
Before becoming Conservative leader, he wrote last year about "a serious shift in the power balance" which would see countries such as Iraq in possession of substantially enhanced weaponry, possibly nuclear, certainly biological and chemical, and "the means to deliver them", bringing Britain and America into range.
The choice for him is clear. "People can dig their heads in the sand . . . or we can say 'we'll deal with that now, we can sort it out' before it becomes impossible to sort it out in five years time."
• Frank Millar is London Editor of The Irish Times
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