Anger asjobless told 'get on busto find work'

Mr Duncan Smith was accused of a “calculated insult” to the jobless in remarks that carried echoes of Norman Tebbit’s infamous suggestion during the downturn of the 1980s that the unemployed should get on their bikes to find work.

The Government has acknowledged that almost 500,000 public sector workers are set to lose their jobs as a result of the cuts set out in George Osborne’s spending review on Wednesday.

Interviewed on the BBC2’s Newsnight, Mr Duncan Smith said: “The truth is there are jobs. They may not be absolutely in the town you are living in. They may be in a neighbouring town.”

“We need to recognise the jobs often don’t come to you. Sometimes you need to go to the jobs.”

Downing Street said that he had simply been making the case for flexible labour markets, of which Prime Minister David Cameron was “in favour”.

However the comments drew a furious response from the unions, with Unite assistant general secretary Len McCluskey saying that the Tories remained the “nasty party”.

“Can the ConDem coalition really believe that the unemployment being created by savage Government cuts will be fixed by having people wandering across the country with their meagre possessions crammed into the luggage racks of buses?” he said.

Bob Crow of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, said: “This rubbish from the old-school Thatcherite right is nothing less than a calculated insult to the 500,000 public sector workers who stand to lose their jobs from the ConDem cuts.”

For Labour, Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Douglas Alexander said that people could not make the move from welfare to work if the jobs were not available.

“Like Norman Tebbit before him, Iain Duncan Smith seems sadly to have retreated into the Conservative comfort zone of blame and disdain,” he said.

We still haven’t had last word over cuts: Page 15.