Gripping viewing as IDS and Osborne insist on staying put

But as the newish Cabinet lined up on the front row of the green leather benches, one figure stood apart from his colleagues. Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith – whose conversion on the Road to Easterhouse led to him wanting to completely reform the welfare system – was at the end of the chamber.

This was not surprising, given that Mr Cameron had, just over 24 hours before, tried to shift him from his cherished great reforming role to replace Ken Clarke as Justice Secretary.

As Labour leader Ed Miliband started his attack on “the same old faces”, IDS’s hands gripped tightly to the back of Dame Anne Begg’s wheelchair parked just in front of him. The message was “this same old face has no intention of moving”.

As the Labour chairwoman of the Commons work and pensions select committee, Dame Anne has been one of IDS’s leading critics, so it seemed rather ironic that she was providing support for him, even involuntarily.

But IDS was not alone in grimly holding on to a post others would rather he was relieved of. His nemesis George Osborne, who had wanted him out of the way to cut another £10bn from welfare, was in his customary place on the front bench next to the Prime Minister – still in-post despite leading Britain into “the worst double-dip recession since WWII”, as Mr Miliband helpfully observed.