IAIN Duncan Smith has called for the Treasury to be broken up, branding George Osborne's powerful department "the worst thing in Britain".

The former Work and Pensions secretary claimed the Exchequer dominated UK Government decision-making, which had grown powerful under the chancellorship of Gordon Brown. This, he said, had left it with “enormous” power over other departments in Whitehall.

But the Essex MP claimed it was characterised by a "lack of vision" and a "short-term" obsession with cuts.

Mr Duncan Smith - who resigned his cabinet role in March in a row with the Chancellor over benefit cuts - complained that other ministers had to "fight at all stages" with the Treasury over policy.

The Scot said he gave a "sigh of relief" when he left government because he would "never have to deal with those people again".

Mr Duncan Smith declared: "The worst thing we have in Britain is the Treasury; it has to be broken up…”

At a round-table discussion with journalists and political figures, the former minister complained: "The culture of the Treasury is almost unique in the Western world; that a country's government is so dominated by one organisation.”

He went on: "The average age in the Treasury is 27. They spend no more than two years in any single part of the Treasury. They have no collective memory for any agreement or decision that had been taken before they arrived at their desks.

"Everything is up for grabs immediately someone new moves in and they dictate every single policy area across government. It is a fight at all stages."

Mr Duncan Smith claimed the sort of decisions made in countries such as Germany and the US to support industry were "very difficult" in the UK because of the Treasury's dominance..

"It's not a department that is characterised by the concept of vision. This is a department that is characterised solely by a lack of vision," he added.