Hague, William

Hague, William (b. Rotherham, Yorkshire, 26 Mar. 1961) British; Conservative Party Leader 1997–2001 When he was elected Conservative Party leader in June 1997, William Hague became the youngest party leader since William Pitt, 200 years earlier, as well as the first party leader to have attended a comprehensive school. He seemed marked out for political stardom ever since his much-lauded address to the Conservative conference at the age of 16 in 1977. As a student at Oxford University, he followed a time-honoured path of becoming president of the Oxford University Conservative Association and president of the Students' Union. After university he took a lucrative job with the management consultants McKinsey.

In January 1989 Hague was elected for the safe Conservative seat of Richmond in a by-election. After a spell as a junior social security minister he joined the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Wales in June 1995, when the holder of the post resigned to challenge John Major for the party leadership.

Hague is often accused of lacking convictions. This may be the product of calculation, his relative youth, or the short period in which he was been in the House of Commons. Although he is on the centre right of the party it is difficult to associate him with settled views, apart from hostility to the single European currency. This outlook actually worked to his advantage when there was a leadership vacancy after the 1997 election defeat and John Major resigned. Hague was fortunate in the absence of more favoured and senior candidates, due to ill health or to a failure to hold their seats at the general election. Three other candidates were clearly on the right wing of the party and Kenneth Clarke was clearly on the liberal wing. Hague had no strong enemies and beat Clarke on the third and final ballot by 90 votes to 72. He promised to unify his bruised party. Although he clearly spoke for the Eurosceptic majority in his party there is a considerable Europhile minority and it remains to be seen how he keeps the party united.