The row over Newham's bid to relocate homeless families in Stoke has been stoked up by 'political games' according to works and pensions secretary Iain Duncan Smith.

In a robust defence of the government's policy to cap housing benefits, Mr Duncan Smith told a 4Children conference: 'I'm not even cutting benefit, just the rate at which it is rising and we're doing this because the current costs at £25 billion are unsustainable.. Many other countries are actually cutting it while we've also given £190m to councils for transitional arrangements. This issue is not made easier by political games that talk of social cleansing.'