What is really going on in politics? Get our daily email briefing straight to your inbox Sign up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Top Tory Iain Duncan Smith took a £2,400 trip to the football shortly before claiming that he could live on £53 a week.

He and his son watched their team Tottenham Hotspur take on bitter rivals Arsenal from the director’s box as guests of the north London club.

The prime seats and lavish hospitality at the derby were worth a staggering £2,400, the latest edition of Parliament’s Register of Members’ Interests shows.

The details came amid claims that Work and Pensions ­Secretary Mr Duncan Smith told a Treasury official “I’ll bite your balls off” during a vicious row over welfare reform.

The former Tory leader was slammed for accepting the March 3 freebie from Spurs but ducking a challenge to prove he could live on £53 a week.

The MP, who lives rent free in a £2million home with an annual salary of £134,565, claimed he could get by on the paltry sum a month ago.

But the arrogant Cabinet minister has shunned a petition signed by more than 300,000 to actually try doing it.

Mark Serwotka, leader of the PCS union, said that lavish football jaunt was just the latest evidence that the MP lives in a different world from those struggling on welfare.

Mr Serwotka stormed: “This is gross hypocrisy from a man who not only glibly claimed he could live on £53 a week but also peddles the myth that people are better off on benefits than in work.”

Mr Duncan Smith’s row with the Treasury came two years ago when Chancellor George Osborne was desperately trying to block the Universal Credit, an attempt to wrap eight benefits up in one payment.

The complex new scheme, which relies on a brand new computer system, is seen as a disaster waiting to happen by many in Westminster including many Tories.

The Work Secretary’s temper boiled over when he heard an aide being berated by someone from the Treasury.

He apparently snatched the phone and said: “If you speak to my officials like that again I’ll bite your balls off and send them to you in a box.”