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Tory welfare slasher Iain Duncan Smith has insisted his benefit cuts had nothing to do with forcing the jobless to get vasectomies.

The former minister was forced to make the bizarre denial after it emerged a Tory youth tsar demanded jobseekers get the snip.

Theresa May is under pressure to sack Ben Bradley, 28, six days after he was appointed Vice Chair of the Conservative Party after he issued an apology for the "repulsive" comments.

Mr Bradley said Britain would be "drowning in a vast sea of unemployed wasters" unless those out of work limited the number of children they produce.

In a now-deleted blog post aged 22 he added: "Vasectomies are free".

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The blog post was written in support of Mr Duncan Smith's benefit cap, which limits the total welfare a household can claim to £20,000 in one year.

It has been branded a "social cleansing" policy because it forces families out of areas with high rents.

Mr Duncan Smith admitted the blog was "crass" but told ITV's Good Morning Britain: "The proposal actually had nothing to do with people having vasectomies or the numbers of children.

"The proposal about the benefit cap was limiting the amount people can collect together in the course of a number of different benefits so it would never get above essentially average earnings.

"That was the principle and actually that has turned out to be reasonably well received.

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“All the evidence now shows those in the benefit cap are more likely to go back to work and have gone back to work directly as a result. All of those are positives.

"They had nothing to do with whether people have children or do not have children."

Labour MP Chuka Umunna said the remarks were "stupid and idiotic", adding: "This is my problem with the way people discuss those on social security.

"That’s 190 families [he’s highlighted], of course it’s unacceptable if anybody’s abusing a system, but if you look at the system as a whole, where we’ve got tens of millions of families claiming from a system that is there to protect them, there to provide a safety net.

"Him pushing these views out there gives the impression that the whole system is broken when it’s not."

In a statement Mr Bradley, 28, said: "I apologise for these posts. My time in politics has allowed me to mature and I now realise that this language is not appropriate."