POLITICIANS must accept some of the responsibility for a break down in moral values which led to rioting across the country, Iain Duncan Smith has said.

The Chingford MP told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme those in positions of power could have contributed to creating a culture of selfishness which encourages criminality.

He said: "We all have to put our hands in the air, those of us in leadership positions, and recognise in the last 15 or 20 years what has happened to us is that many of us have just decided that life is about what you take out of it, not what you put in.

"You know, stiffing somebody on a debt in the City, or raiding someone's telephone for messages, claiming expenses that you should not have claimed … all of us have to recognise we have to put our own house in order at the same time, and try and change that."

Mr Duncan Smith also acknowledged that those in positions of power often believed different moral standards applied to them.