how strange circumstances conspired to save the ‘doomed’ Iain Duncan Smith

As one big Tory beast after another faces The hunger Games On election night, one remarkably escaped the bloodbath. Sir Iain Duncan Smith, the former leader of the Conservative Party, stood proudly on the stage with the past and present Labour candidates whose fierce infighting had done him such a great favour.

He seemed pleasantly surprised when the Electoral Commission for Chingford and Woodford Green announced his total of 17,281 votes, which was understandable given that the exit poll had predicted he had less than a 1 per cent chance of winning. And yet there he was, the great survivor ...