David Cameron accused of ditching legislation in Queen's Speech in pursuit of winning EU vote

David Cameron has been accused of “jettisoning” and “diluting” new laws to change Britain in the “helter skelter pursuit” of winning next month’s EU referendum.

The former Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith made the claim after the Government unveiled its legislative programme for the next year.

Mr Duncan Smith was particularly angry at the omission of a Sovereignty Bill - promised after the EU renegotiation deal as a way of bringing power back to the UK.

Mr Cameron said back in February that the measures - designed to tackle European Court of Justice powers - would "put beyond doubt" the UK parliament's sovereignty.

Plans for a new British Bill of Rights were also left deliberately vague while the new Counter Extremism Bill – expected to be one of the most controversial pieces of legislation in the next session of Parliament – also had key details missing.

Tories in favour of Brexit believe that the Government is intent on shelving any kinds of controversial legislation in the run up to next month’s referendum for fear of alienating support for the remain campaign.

But equally it reflects the Government’s narrow majority in the House of Commons which limits its room for manoeuvre.

"Many Conservatives have become increasingly concerned that in the Government's helter-skelter pursuit of the referendum, they have been jettisoning or watering down key elements of their legislative programme," he said.

Mr Duncan Smith cited recent Government climb downs on Trade Union reform and changes to the BBC as evidence of Government ‘caution first’ approach.

“Whether it is the Trade Union Bill or the BBC Charter proposals, it seems nothing must stand in the way of winning the referendum,” he said.

"Yet to compound that, now it appears the much-vaunted Sovereignty Bill, key to the argument that the PM had secured a reform of the EU, has been tossed aside as well."

The Essex MP added: “The fear in Government must be that, as no-one in Britain buys the idea that the EU has been reformed, the Sovereignty Bill would draw the public's attention back to that failure. After all if the EU Court of Justice is supreme and can strike down our laws, the British people would have just laughed at the idea Britain can be sovereign unless we leave the EU.”

But the current Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb denied that plans for a Sovereignty Bill had been "tossed aside".

“What we don't want to be doing is rushing forward and bringing forward proposals that are unworkable,” he said.

“We have had our fingers burnt before when we have done that.”

The Liberal Democrat Leader Tim Farron said the speech was simply evidence that one year into Government the Conservatives were “running out of steam”.

"30 announcements, but 28 have been made before,” he said.

"The Queen’s Speech is a stop-gap to give the warring factions of the Tory party a couple of day’s respite from the referendum. It does nothing to address the key issues at stake.”