More than 100,000 people have signed an online petition demanding that Iain Duncan Smith be stripped of his knighthood.

The former Conservative leader and architect of the widely criticised Universal Credit system has been included in the 2020 New Years Honour List.

During his time as the work and pensions secretary, Mr Duncan Smith was the central figure leading significant cuts to benefit and disability entitlements. In 2016, he quit after six years in the role in protest against further benefits cuts, calling them "indefensible".

The petition, entitled "Iain Duncan-Smith [sic] should not receive a Knighthood", had received just under 105,000 signatures by 8:30am on Sunday. In it, the MP is labelled as "responsible for some of the cruellest most extreme welfare reforms this country has ever seen".

It was set up by Dr Mona Kamal Ahmed, an NHS psychiatrist who says she has frequently seen people with chronic mental illness experiencing panic attacks, from anxiety caused by the assessments claimants were put through and over potentially losing welfare payments.


Dr Ahmed, who is pictured posing with Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn on her social media, has written about the "callous and humiliating" work capability assessments on the petition website, saying "people with chronic disability are required to continuously prove they are deserving of their welfare payments or else be stripped of their entitlements".

"They have been directly linked to relapses of depression and anxiety and have even been linked to excess deaths through suicide," she said.

"As a NHS psychiatrist I have sat in A&E departments with people diagnosed with chronic mental illness who have been driven to panic attacks, acute relapses of their depressive illness and suicidal ideation as a result of the anxiety caused by these tests and over the prospect of losing the welfare payments they rely on.

"This has only intensified with the chaos and uncertainty of Universal Credit, a system known to be causing hardship to millions and for which Iain Duncan-Smith is again wholly culpable."

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In April, analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) found that almost 2 million people would lose out on more than £1,000 a year under new Universal Credit reforms.

At the time, a DWP spokesperson told The Independent the report "wrongly assumes that everyone was claiming their full benefit entitlement under the old system, which they weren't because the system was overly complex".

The spokesperson added: "With recent work allowances changes, 2.4 million households will be up to £630 a year better off and people will access around £2.4bn of previously unclaimed benefits."

Mr Duncan Smith has been an MP since 1992 and was Tory leader from 2001 to 2003.

A Labour Party spokesman said it was "unfortunate to see that one of Boris Johnson's first priorities" was to grant a knighthood to Sir Iain - the "primary architect of the cruel Universal Credit system, which has pushed thousands of people into poverty".

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Office has apologised after the home addresses of more than 1,000 people who received New Year honours were accidentally posted online.

Sir Elton John, Ben Stokes, Mr Duncan Smith and the former director of public prosecutions Alison Saunders are believed to be among those affected.