An emotional Mr Duncan Smith said: “My wife has been through all shades of hell in the last six months and I think quite unnecessarily.” In a rare public statement, his wife added: “The last six months have been horrendous, horrendous for my husband, horrendous for me and our family. Allies of Mr Duncan Smith believed the original e-mail was “written to be leaked” and part of a conspiracy against him, a claim denied by Dr Gearson and Mr MacGregor.The Standards and Privileges Committee of MPs endorsed the findings of Sir Philip Mawer, the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, who found nothing to “cast doubt on the honesty or integrity of Mr and Mrs Duncan Smith”. “It is also about hard-headed liberalism,” the party’s leader will add.. Iain Duncan Smith wants the Conservative Party to sack two parliamentary candidates who fuelled allegations that his wife was wrongly paid from public funds after he was cleared by Parliament’s anti-sleaze watchdog yesterday. But Mr Duncan Smith was criticised for using taxpayers’ money to pay three of his staff, including his wife, for party political work.Mr Duncan Smith said the allegations, leaked to the media shortly before he was ousted as party leader last October, “may well have been” a factor in his downfall. He is unlikely to take legal action but wants his successor, Michael Howard, to axe as candidates the former Conservative Central Office aides who gave evidence to the inquiry backing up the allegations. They are Vanessa Gearson, nicknamed the “assassin in high heels”, who is to fight Cheltenham, and Mark MacGregor, who has been selected in Thanet South “These are matters for the party and the present leadership No doubt they want to look at that,” Mr Duncan Smith said.

“For example, how many people care these days whether their local MP is gay or straight?” he will tell the You Ask the Questions event. It is understood that the Treasury is one of the prime movers behind the review. Charles Kennedy will today try to convince critics he has fully recovered his health with a keynote speech arguing left-right politics are “out of date” in the 21st century. Mr Kennedy will say that, while the 20th century was characterised by conservatism with a “small c”, this century will be known as the “small l liberal” century.He will set out his vision for a liberal society that is tolerant, “less deferential” and “more open about sexuality and equality”. Standing on a soap box at London’s Paddington station, he said: “The statistics about punctuality that come out every three months showing reductions in millions of minutes lost to delays completely baffle passengers, especially as they notice no difference in their journeys.

The rail industry’s targets are all about trains and minutes. They are not about the passenger.”Mr Francis said the Government’s review was an opportunity to get a “failed structure” right “Nobody asked the passengers if they wanted privatisation Millions of passengers use the trains everyday They see what goes wrong. What we are saying to Government this time is ‘listen to the experts’,” he said.A spokesman for the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA), which is under review by the Government, said the needs of passengers and freight customers were at the heart of the railway.”The industry must strike a balance between being honest about its strengths and weaknesses and deterring new passengers and new freight operators by overstating the negative,” he said.Mr Darling is expected to resist demands by train operators that they should take more control of the infrastructure from Network Rail.However, it is known that the Transport Secretary is keen to reduce the power of the SRA and find a way of reducing the number of organisations in the industry. Mr Darling believes that it should be reduced to the stature of a government agency, rather than a free-standing authority.The Government’s review of the industry is due for completion this summer. Statutory sick pay is £64.35 a week for six months, after which incapacity benefit may take over.Interview by Sam DunnIf you would like a financial makeover, write to Melanie Bien at The Independent on Sunday, Independent House, 191 Marsh Wall, London E14 9RS, or m.bien independent.co.uk.