Ken Clarke MP: Post-budget Tory pressures and strains

Figures showed the biggest losers in the budget were the poorest families and the winners wealthy pensioners

There's one thing all Conservatives have agreed on this week - Iain Duncan Smith had turned the welfare system around and was doing a great job before resigning.

After a weekend when the infighting was at its height, there was - by Monday - an acceptance that making £4bn of savings on disability payments was the wrong thing to do.

But the next day, the former Tory chancellor, Ken Clarke, said the government would be wise to leave open the possibility of more welfare cuts, if it's to successfully tackle the fiscal deficit.

It set the Rushcliffe MP trending on Twitter.

The veteran MP is concerned too much in the budget has been ringfenced and protected. In a way, that was Iain Duncan Smith's argument against his own government when he resigned.

The now former work and pensions secretary made a passionate case on the Andrew Marr show when he said: "We need to make sure we widen the scope of where we look to get the deficit down and not just narrow it down on working age benefits."

He also said of the prime minister: "He has done a very good job, but I believe they're losing sight of the direction of the travel".

MP for Rushcliffe Ken Clarke said he did not think Iain Duncan Smith's resignation was part of a "eurosceptic" plot

When the chancellor sat down after delivering the budget "for the next generation" to roars of approval behind him, it all unravelled rather rapidly, leading to the next generation of work and pensions secretary.

The Independent Institute for Fiscal Studies produced a graph showing the biggest losers in the budget were the poorest families. The winners are wealthy pensioners.

Mr Clarke probably falls into that category. He told me: "The strains of the EU referendum are proving very considerable for the Conservative party." But he was persuaded the Duncan Smith resignation was no eurosceptic plot.

"He has had difficulty because so much of the constraints came on his budget. But spending on the disabled is going up. It exceeds the budget for the entire Ministry of Defence and is rising rapidly because they've made a mistake in how they calculate the PIPs (Personal Independence payments)."

Iain Duncan Smith, former work and pensions secretary, resigned from his post over budget cuts

Another Conservative MP told me there was concern the row would give the party the label of the "nasty party" again, which was to be avoided at all costs.

Concern was also expressed about the way George Osborne was running the Treasury. The phrase "for short term political gain" was used.

"He has been trying to control everything through budgets just like Gordon Brown did - education, local government, health, welfare. He has polarised the party between FOGs (Friends of George) and the rest," I was told.

But will what has happened after the budget, which incidentally has been left with a £4bn black hole, damage George Osborne's leadership ambitions?

"I haven't the first idea," said Mr Clarke." In my experience, the leadership of the Conservative Party has always been won by a candidate whom nobody had thought of until three weeks before.

"At the moment, the media just report every political event as is it good for Boris bad for Boris? Good for George bad for George? When David Cameron finally steps down, I don't think what's happened this week will have anything to do with the outcome."

Labour MP for Leicester West Liz Kendall asked David Cameron about the government's compassion

And what of the opposition ? There was concern expressed among Labour ranks that an opportunity to use Iain Duncan Smith's own arguments about unfairness was missed by Jeremy Corbyn when up against the prime minister on Monday.

He didn't mention the former cabinet minister and concentrated his fire on wondering why the chancellor had not appeared in the Commons and demanding his resignation.

It was left to Liz Kendall, Labour MP for Leicester West, to ask David Cameron: "The prime minister says he is a compassionate Conservative leading a one nation government - so how does he feel when a former leader of his party and a member of his cabinet for six years says this simply is not true?"

The prime minister replied saying four million people had been lifted out of income tax, there had been an increase in disability benefit and 2.4 million more people had a job. But he was "sad" Iain Duncan Smith had left the government.