However I remember Duncan Smith during the two years he was in charge of the opposition. "The Quiet Man" he may have been, without guile or spin - and maybe he did lack a little on the charisma front - but I thought he came across as a genuinely good man, an inherently decent man. When he was ousted as leader after a vote of no confidence from his MPs I thought it said more about them than it did of him.
Iain Duncan Smith is a very honourable man and he is the nicest bloke with genuine morals - he is everything you would like in a person - but he is not a leader," he said.
"He lost the plot three months ago when Labour were shooting themselves in the foot. He didn't stand up and say what he thought - he let them get on with it."
Tory leader interview in full
Here is the text of Iain Duncan Smith's interview on Wednesday with BBC Radio 4's Today programme's John Humphrys.
Q: Would it not be doing your party a service at this stage, to say - look I've made my best shot at it, now I'm going bow out with dignity and let somebody else have a go?
A: Well, no John. I think the system is very clear. I've got rather fed up with what has been going on over the last few weeks - this sapping away by a small group of people who never accepted the result of the leadership election in the country at large two years ago. I just felt that it was going to damage the party.
So on Monday - as you all have noticed - I essentially urged colleagues to bring this to a head on Wednesday - today - and make a final decision. And that is exactly what they've done.
I actually urged people, in many senses, to write to those letters, to have this vote, so that we could end this. And I'm doing that because I want to put the party first but I want to put the party first in the sense of what's good for the country.
And I do believe today my colleagues have a decision to make and that decision is by no means decided but it is this, that either they can give me that mandate and say to those who have continually said they weren't prepared to accept that result that it's over now and we need to get on and lead on what I think is a genuine real platform for change to the general election, take this government on or we can plunge ourselves into a leadership election which is bound to be reasonably protracted, certainly going to damage our standing and end up with us at a most difficult time for the government, simply disappearing from the public's view and I think that's the choice on offer.
Q: How big a mandate do you need?
A: I need to win - as in per the rules.
Q: Is that it - just one vote will do it, will it?
A: Yes well think about it John. If we hadn't, in our previous leadership round before I went to the country - if we'd ended up with just two people involved in that final round, then one of them would have got just over 50% and that would have been fine for them to lead the party.
What happened instead was that we had three and so nobody got probably more than about a third of the votes and we went to the country, the remaining two and the decision was made in the country overwhelmingly.
So as far as I'm concerned, the rules are very clear - this is the only way of settling this once and for all and I simply need to win this and I say to colleagues make that decision and that decision is about whether you want us to go forward to take the Government on from tomorrow onwards or whether we want to plunge ourselves into an internecine warfare which actually the British people will say, what in heaven's name is this party doing.
Q: Well you're absolutely right about the rules - of course you need a majority of just one - but you couldn't run the party, you couldn't be an effective leader with a majority of just one, could you? You've got to show that you have the support - the overwhelming support - of your colleagues in Parliament.
A: John, John - no, no, you can't start moving the goalposts just in some vague way in case somehow I win, that it's not good enough. The reality, as I think Frances Maude said yesterday, certainly as I understood him to have said, you know whatever the decision is today, we stand by that decision and we go forward as a united party. And that's essentially what I believe will happen.
I think most of my colleagues, the vast majority of the voluntary party, are sick to death of this constant sniping and it's got to be brought to an end once and for all. And I believe the rules make it very clear that once this is over now, it's some time before any further changes or challenges can happen - that gives us the continuity and the stability.
Honestly John, I say to you - and I've done these interviews with you many, many times - I always say, look for most of the British people, they're not really interested in leadership, what they're interested in is what we as a party are going to offer as an alternative.
I think the hard work of the last two years that I've led over - when I first did my interview, you said that we would be divided on Europe, we couldn't come together on policy - we have.
We've got a range of policies now that genuinely appeal to pensioners, giving them better incomes, to tell students they'll have their tuition and top-up fees scrapped, to give people better healthcare and education and to be able to say that on Europe, we are the only party that will campaign for a referendum on the constitution and be united in doing so.
That is a platform for change which I am genuinely proud of and that's through my leadership we've achieved it - now I want to take it forward to the British people and say, let's give you that alternative.
Q: I'm intrigued that you say the British people are not really interested in leadership - that is exactly what they're interested in, isn't it - history shows us that...
A: No, no, leadership of the political party ...
Q: Neil Kinnock was a very effective leader in the sense that you now describe it, of the Labour Party.
He pushed through some absolutely essential reforms, he did terribly well in lots of ways - he wasn't seen as a leader.
A: Fine. Well the leadership issues that I'm talking about are the internal ones of the party. What they want to know is, is that party going in the right direction, does it have the right policies and is it genuinely going to be a party in government that will improve the quality of their lives - that is the big debate.
Q: They want to see you as a future leader as well though don't they?
A: Absolutely and I want my party...
Q: They want to see you as a future prime minister.
A: Exactly right John. And I want my party today to endorse this decision that allows me to go forward and present the party and myself as able to lead and to run this country.
We cannot do it if some colleagues constantly decide - no matter what the results of any election - that they somehow have a better way.
And all I can say to people is that, you know, like everybody else, I shall watch Lord of the Rings this winter, but I know very well that white knights across the water aren't the matter for real life.
What happens in real life is hard work, focus and genuine unity are what produces results and victory at the next election. That's what the British people need to see and that's how they see leadership.
Q: But your problem is that people, so we're told, cannot say prime minister, Iain Duncan-Smith in the same breath without thinking, well actually that ain't going to happen - we do not see him as a potential prime minister.
And in a sense, in the piece that you wrote for The Times this morning, you sort of acknowledged that. You said, 'I have a deeper understanding of the shortcomings of the past two years and a lot needs to be done to address them, that is my second duty to develop as a leader'. Well, surely you've had two years to develop as a leader?
A: Oh come on John. Look, the whole point about this is that people need to see how you develop and whether or not you are leading the party that you are in charge of in the right direction and that they can believe that the dedication and determination that you have, that you have displayed, is such that they can see you ultimately as that prime minister.
Now being in opposition, it's always difficult to display that. Most people who've led in opposition will always tell you that it is much more difficult to demonstrate that you are ready for government than it is for a government to stand and show that they can lead because they have all the tools at their disposal.
But the one way we can do that is by having a united and focused position for the party and what does damage leadership always is the constant sapping away of people who simply will not let the leader get on and lead.
And that's why I asked - and I think you know with respect, it takes some determination and courage - to ask my party to put my position on the line and today to make that decision.
And all I'm saying to my party here in Parliament - as the voluntary party has already decided - that we now need to unite and focus on the government.
And to disappear out of the political debate for the next two to three months and then try and put the pieces together will be seen by the British people as an abandonment completely of what this party should be about and I believe that we can now end that speculation.
Q: A couple of things out of that. Nobody disputes that you have shown courage in these last few months.
Particularly, you've been pretty tough, they all say. But they still say, look the man doesn't have the leadership qualities we need.
He doesn't make a good speech, he doesn't perform well in media interviews - I'm no judge of that obviously, I'm not making a comment on that myself, I'm telling you what people say and what you've been reading in the newspapers, day after day, week after week, month after month and that's the trouble and if you still have to develop as a leader, they're saying he's not going to.
A: Sorry John that's not correct. You mustn't confuse what some commentators in the papers constantly write to actually what the vast mass of the British people are inclined to believe...
Q: Your own colleagues.
A: ...And that is not the case. Listen, what I know, from all the polling I've seen, from all the details we've seen, is that the public is ready, willing and able to make a decision about us which will be favourable.
What they're saying to us is, we didn't think much of you before, we didn't want to listen to you before because the government was in power, we wanted to give them a chance, we gave them a second change - but now the government is failing, in the last few months, I think the British have made their minds up: that this government, that has lied and spun its way through failure, dealt very badly with a number of issues, is damaging people's lives from pensioners to students...
Q: So why aren't you 10 points ahead in the polls?
A: Well the simple answer to that is that we were ahead in the polls and every time we got ahead in the polls, what happens is, another outbreak of divisive rows took place and we end up coming back down.
Q: Which a strong leader should have been able to kill off. Isn't that the whole point - that's what leadership is about isn't it?
A: Leadership is exactly about that which is what I'm doing today.
Q: But you're...
A: Well this is what I'm doing today John - you can't have it both ways.
Q: Bit late isn't it?
A: No it's not. What I said was that two years ago I had a mandate and I want that mandate now endorsed. And I simply say to my party they have that decision today whether or not to allow themselves to disappear into a war of words over the next two months and to say somehow they can pick up the pieces afterwards with a new leader, having to relearn many of the lessons that are learnt by all the leaders in the first year, year and a half, and somehow be credible and ready for election - I don't think that's feasible.
Hold on a second I haven't finished - because it's also important to understand that in the process - and it was the same for Mrs Thatcher in '75 -'79, it's the same for all leaders, you develop into that job, you develop as you understand better how to take the fight to the other side and that's exactly what I've been doing.
And I now say that the platform I've brought forward, which is actually about leadership. It's about saying to this party two years ago, we have to settle the policy issues that have ripped this party apart.
Europe, you were saying to me, it's not possible to unite this party on Europe - and we are united.
We have a serious and radical set of proposals - to give pensioners better incomes, to actually radically for the first time, say to the British people that we will be on your side when it comes to choosing your healthcare or your education...
Q: You made that point didn't you?
A: Well no, you say I make that point John...
Q: Well no you did, you made the point earlier in the interview.
A: ...but that is at the heart of my leadership - you can't separate the two. I have shown determination in bringing my party together over that.
Q: Quite, that was my point, you can't separate the two.
A: Exactly and I have produced that platform three weeks ago at the conference, saying earlier than any time before, a party in opposition has now set out its stall.
Now we have to take that fight to the Government and to tell the British people about these policies so they can understand there's...
Q: But do you acknowledge that the effect of this in-fighting in the party has been to damage - severely damage - the party's prospects as a whole?
Now John Major made the point on this programme on Saturday, that you are at pretty much the position you were in, in 1997.
In other words, you haven't advanced in all those years since you went out of power. And you say, well I've been a tough leader - the fact is, you haven't been a strong enough leader to contain the party.
And when you say, I did this and that, I effectively called for the vote. You didn't call for the vote, you had to have the vote because there were 25. You could have done what John Major did...
A: No we couldn't ... you should read the rules.
Q: Well you could have done it.
A: No, no, John you can't. Listen, let's be absolutely clear about this. I wish you guys would read the rules before making mistakes.
Q: I made a point of reading the rules before we came on the programme.
A: Well I have to tell you, you couldn't have spotted this. It is not feasible to do that. The only people that can call for that confidence motion are my colleagues and I've urged them to do it and they have done it and that is the reality.
We can get into lots of details. I listened to that interview and John Major was absolutely right. What the party must stop doing now is turning in on itself and accept the fact - which is what he said - that the leader must be allowed to lead. And all I'm saying is that this is an opportunity to do that.
We have worked hard over the last two years to create a platform that we can present to the British people that really makes the Conservative Party the alternative government.
Now I know for a fact that Labour is genuinely worried about us being able to take these issues because they are in complete disarray and they know that they are failing. We have an opportunity.
The next five months are critical because this is about a government which is being seen to fail on foundation hospitals, tuition fees, on Hutton, going to run to the Budget because they've got their spending plans wrong and their tax position is completely smashed apart because the British people are having their money taken off them and that money is wasted.
All of those factors are there ready for us to take on. Today we can end the speculation, tomorrow we can mount that challenge and every day therefore from now 'till Christmas and from Christmas to the Budget to the May and June elections - we can actually mount that challenge in a coherent way if we end this today.
And that is what I'm offering my parliamentary colleagues and what my voluntary party wants I believe and actually the thousands of letters that I've had coming in from people who haven't voted Conservative before, saying that last they begin to notice that there really is something out there worth thinking about in the Conservative Party.
Q: I think what may puzzle some people a bit is that you're presenting the events of this week as a bit of a sort of strategic triumph for your leadership - well it's hardly that is it?
A: I'm not presenting it as anything John, I'm simply say that I took a decision to make certain that this party, once and for all, ended this ... nonsense.
Q: Well no you didn't - those MPs - 25 or however many of them - might have been 55 as far as I know - the 25 MPs who wrote that letter, minimum - they're the people that took the decision.
A: Yes because they're the ones that have to. What I said on Monday, John...
Q: Because they don't have confidence in you.
A: ...what I said John on Monday was that we needed to bring this to an end one way or the other by Wednesday. I asked my colleagues in private meetings and publicly, for them to decide to do it.
And I genuinely welcome the opportunity today - and I'm really not spinning or lying about this - I genuinely welcome this opportunity to clear the air.
I simply say to my colleagues it is right to have this vote. We have to clear the air on this.
All I'm saying, the choice is simple. The choice is between the platform that I have offered, the hard work that was there and the opportunity for me to lead over the next 18 months, to actually take this party to the election as a unified force or to plunge ourselves into a war of words with different candidates all then having to develop, whoever wins, exactly in the way that I had to in the first year, losing the opportunity to beat the government at their most critical...
Q: Final thought. What's all this done to you personally? Because you have been horrendously vilified in the newspapers and everywhere else over the last few weeks. What's it done to you personally?
A: The honest truth, John, I've ignored most of it to be quite frank.
Q: Have you really?
A: Yes, because my view is that I believe that I'm right. And I think if you believe strongly enough and if you believe that what you're doing is right then you must go to it.
And I honestly tell you one thing, I'm not doing this - as you can probably see - as you say from the vilification in the papers - I'm not doing this because I believe this is great to be leader of the opposition or because I love the title or the cameras or the cars that go with it - I'm not doing it for that reason - because those are not good enough reasons.
The only reason I'm doing this is because I genuinely, genuinely - as I did when I served in the Army and as I've done in business - I believe passionately in this country and I believe that the British people are the most decent, tolerant and determined of any that I've ever met and they are worth fighting for John and I am going to fight for them not for myself.
Q: Iain Duncan Smith many thanks.
Point-by-point from 1200:
Labour MP Russell Brown asks the prime minister about concerns that more nurses trained in cancer care are needed.
Mr Blair says it is true that more cancer nurses are needed and it is partly why more money is being spent on the health service.
He says cancer is being detected earlier and cancer deaths are falling.
Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith uses his first questions to ask Mr Blair to apologise for the so-called "dodgy dossier" on Iraq.
Mr Blair says Jack Straw has already apologised on behalf of the government. And he again insists that the information in the dossier was correct.
Mr Duncan Smith says: "Why is it for this prime minister, sorry seems to be the hardest word?"
Mr Blair says parliament was not misled, but acknowledges that one part of the dossier should have been attributed to the author.
He says Mr Duncan Smith was privy to intelligence information about Iraq.
But the Tory leader says he was never shown the "dodgy dossier" before publication.
Mr Blair says Mr Duncan Smith was briefed by intelligence chiefs in September and last February.
He says the "dodgy dossier" was based on evidence upon which the Tory leader had been briefed.
Piara Khabra, a Labour MP, asks about access to offshore funds.
Mr Blair promises to examine the matter.
Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy asks about UK citizens in a legal "no man's land" in the US camp in Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.
Mr Blair says he will ensure that any future trial of UK citizens would take place under international law.
Mr Kennedy says the citizens in question may face the death penalty. He asks if this is acceptable.
Mr Blair promises to press for fair trials for the citizens.
Geraint Davies raises the same subject, asking if the UK has asked for a constituent held at the camp to be repatriated to face a fair trial.
Mr Blair says if charges are brought they must be tried along internationally-recognised standards.
Michael Fabricant, a Tory MP, asks what "delivery targets" Mr Blair would scrap after the prime minister said that maybe the government had set too many targets.
The prime minister said Labour would not scrap targets on schools and hospitals which he suggested the Tories would abandon.
Labour MP Hugh Bayley says much crime is fuelled by drug addiction and asks what is being done to tackle the problem.
Mr Blair says funding is being increased as is drug treatment.
Mr Duncan Smith rises again to ask if Mr Blair will stick to his plans on tuition fees after the rebellion over foundation hospitals.
Mr Blair says he will.
The Tory leader questions whether Scottish MPs should be voting on matters affecting only England and Wales, such as foundation hospitals.
Mr Blair rejects that suggestion, saying they represent the UK parliament.
Mr Duncan Smith says Labour MPs were elected opposing tuition fees for students.
Dari Taylor (Labour) asks about anti-social behaviour which she says is blighting her constituency.
Mr Blair says it is "remarkable" that the Lib Dems opposed the government's plans on anti-social behaviour.
Ian Liddell-Grainger, Conservative, asks about the delay to the children's green paper.
Mr Blair attacks what he says would be Tory cuts in public services if the party were elected to power.
David Winnick, a Labour MP, says Mr Blair should make "stronger" representations over UK citizens held in Cuba. "Put your foot down," he says.
Mr Blair repeats his statement that he will insist they are tried according to international law.
Andrew Murrison, a Tory MP, asks about delays in the criminal records bureau.
Mr Blair says performance is improving. It would be wrong to scrap the bureau he says.
Crispin Blunt asks about the involvement of extremists from Chechnya in Afghanistan. He says the name of "an entire people" is being blackened by the suggestion that Chechens were involved.
Mr Blair says there are reports of Chechen fighters found in Afghanistan.
Howard Stoate, Labour, asks an end to age discrimination in the workforce.
Mr Blair says action is planned on the area.
John Barrett says there should be a resignation statement from the prime minister if weapons of mass destruction are not found in Iraq.
Mr Blair says he has no doubt that weapons programmes will be found in Iraq.
Labour MP Tom Cox asks if Mr Blair is aware of a change in attitude from Turkish-Cypriot community in Cyprus.
He says there must be more efforts towards a settlement between the Greek and Turkish governments.
Mr Blair says discussions will continue. He says UN proposals remain on the table.
David Tredinnick highlights petitions opposing EU changes to food supplements.
The speaker rules the question out of order.
Doug Naysmith, Labour MP, says the new Airbus programme is vital for workers and the national economy.
Mr Blair welcomes the comments and congratulates Airbus workers.
Andrew Turner says the Isle of Wight are charged every time they access the road network.
That "injustice" should end, he says.
Mr Blair says Mr Turner must wait for a Commons statement later on Wednesday.
Hilton Dawson, a Labour MP, says Mr Blair should come to his constituency in Lancaster and Wyre.
Mr Blair says he will visit as soon as possible.
Huw Irranca-Davies says broadband technology is vital for his constituency of Ogmore.
Mr Blair says huge progress is being made in a very important area.
Julian Brazier, a Tory MP, asks if Mr Blair is really satisfied with the "poor" service of the criminal records bureau.
Mr Blair again defends the bureau.
