UK News 15-10-2003 IDS: Come Out And Fight who: Iain Duncan Smith what: Hits out at `Cowards In The Shadows` where: House of Commons, LONDON when: Yesterday snippet: Iain Duncan Smith`s "tenuous grip on the Conservative Party leadership was loosened further last night", suggests today`s Independent, "when Parliament`s anti-sleaze watchdog announced a full-scale investigation into the way he ran his private office and paid his wife for acting as his diary secretary." Sir Philip Mawer, the parliamentary commissioner for standards, announced he would investigate claims by journalist Michael Crick that the Tory leader paid his wife £15,000 for "very little work" after he became leader. But in what The Telegraph calls "a series of defiant and emotional broadcasts" last night Mr Duncan Smith insisted he would be cleared and described the allegations as a "downright lie". He branded those seeking to destabilise his leadership as "cowards in the shadows" and accused them of using his wife in a plot to destroy him. In front of ITN cameras, The Sun says the self-styled Quiet Man "exploded" with rage at Tory rebels and challenged them: "Have the guts to stand right in front of me, come and face me down. Don`t you dare try and take my wife on. You come to me and I`m going to fix you." And it seems Mr Duncan-Smith`s opponents will indeed have to reveal themselves and face him down. Before beginning hsi inquiry, Sir Philip said that Mrs Duncan Smith`s accusers would have to "break cover". "People who want to make serious allegations against MPs have got to be prepared essentially to put up or shut up," he said. [... more]

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