Work and pensions secretary set to keep his distance from bickering Vote Leave and Leave.EU groups during run-up to referendum

Iain Duncan Smith to go it alone in campaign to leave EU

Iain Duncan Smith is to campaign independently for Britain to leave the European Union, spurning the rival campaigns seeking to act as the main group pushing to quit in the EU referendum.



EU referendum: rival no campaigns bicker over message and method Read more

Amid growing confidence in Downing Street that David Cameron is closing in on an EU deal, the Guardian understands that the work and pensions secretary believes that he should act alone as a “great big voice” in the campaign.

The decision by Duncan Smith, which has emerged as the prime minister embarks on a fresh round of bilateral meetings with EU leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, will add to a growing sense of crisis among anti-EU campaigners.

He is one of at least four cabinet ministers who are expected to campaign to leave the EU once Cameron has concluded his negotiations with fellow leaders, possibly at the next summit in mid-February. The others are expected to be Chris Grayling, the leader of the House of Commons, Theresa Villiers, the Northern Ireland secretary, John Whittingdale, the culture secretary, and Priti Patel, the employment minister who first made her name in James Goldsmith’s Referendum party campaign in the 1997 general election.

Grayling has been signalling in public that he will campaign against Britain’s membership, but Duncan Smith, who is a member of a cabinet committee which is supposed to be overseeing the negotiations, will make no announcement until the prime minister formally lifts cabinet collective responsibility at a meeting that will be held soon after the negotiations have concluded.

“It will all be done in a decent way,” one source familiar with the EU process told the Guardian, adding that Duncan Smith would be in sole command of his campaigning. “Iain will be able to say: ‘This has been my firm belief for a long time.’ He will be a great big voice in the campaign.”

It emerged on Wednesday that Goldman Sachs, the investment bank, has given a significant sum to the campaign to stay in the EU.

The US business has backed Britain Stronger in Europe with a donation said to be in six figures.

Senior officials from the bank – which earlier on Wednesday had reported full year results knocked by a $5bn settlement with the US authorities – have previously spoken about the importance of the UK remaining in Europe. Goldman Sachs employs around 6,000 in London. It would not comment on the donation to the yes campaign, which is not classified as political finance because it is not party specific.



Duncan Smith’s decision will come as a blow to the Vote Leave group. Lord Lawson of Blaby, the former chancellor who is a Vote Leave supporter, said at the weekend that a senior cabinet minister was expected to lead the out campaign. With Duncan Smith going it alone, they will have to rely on the less high-profile Grayling or Villiers to take the lead. Whittingdale is not planning to play a prominent role in the campaign.

Downing Street is increasingly confident that a raft of Eurosceptic cabinet ministers will eventually support the prime minister. Michael Gove, the justice secretary, is understood to have told the prime minister he will support him. Boris Johnson, a member of the political cabinet, is said to be inching towards the remain camp after being persuaded that a proposal by Vote Leave for two referendums will fail. There is a hope that Theresa May, the home secretary, will support the prime minister if he can show that he has achieved tangible reforms to discourage EU migration.

The decision of Duncan Smith to spurn Vote Leave and its rival Leave.EU comes as anti-EU MPs at Westminster are fearing that that serious debate is being drowned out by the disputes between the two groups.

Special summit could pave way for EU referendum in June Read more

Vote Leave, which is headed by Matthew Elliott, the brains behind the successful anti-electoral reform campaign in the 2011 referendum, regards Leave.EU as a front for Ukip. Arron Banks, the Ukip donor who co-founded Leave.EU, says the Vote Leave strategy director, Dominic Cummings, is undermining the anti-EU side by launching stunts against business groups. Cummings arranged for a group of student supporters to heckle the prime minister at the CBI annual conference last year.

The row is significant because the Electoral Commission will have to designate one group on either side during the referendum campaign.

A new cross-party group, called Grassroots Out, is to hold a meeting in Kettering, Northamptonshire on Saturday. It is supported by Nigel Farage, the Ukip leader who is close to Leave.EU.

The feuding on the side supporting a Brexit comes as the prime minister intensifies his EU negotiations in Davos ahead of next month’s summit. Cameron’s lobbying of EU leaders at the World Economic Forum will include meetings on Thursday with Mark Rutte, the Dutch prime minister who holds the EU’s rotating presidency and who is Cameron’s closest EU ally, and the Luxembourg prime minister, Xavier Bettel.

In a speech to the World Economic Forum, the prime minister will highlight how his changes are designed to boost competitiveness and to improve economic growth in the EU. “I would expect the prime minister’s address will focus on the competitiveness and the economic strand and benefits of the EU and the reforms we need to make in these areas to do better still,” a spokesperson said.