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William Hague

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The Right Honourable
William Hague

MP
Incumbent
Assumed office
12 May 2010
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Preceded byThe Lord Mandelson
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Incumbent
Assumed office
11 May 2010
Prime MinisterDavid Cameron
Preceded byDavid Miliband
Shadow Foreign Secretary
In office
6 December 2005 – 11 May 2010
LeaderDavid Cameron
Preceded byLiam Fox
Succeeded byDavid Miliband
Leader of the Opposition
In office
19 June 1997 – 18 September 2001
MonarchElizabeth II
Prime MinisterTony Blair
Preceded byJohn Major
Succeeded byIain Duncan Smith
Secretary of State for Wales
In office
5 July 1995 – 2 May 1997
Prime MinisterJohn Major
Preceded byDavid Hunt
Succeeded byRon Davies
Member of Parliament
for Richmond (Yorks)
Incumbent
Assumed office
23 February 1989
Preceded byLeon Brittan
Majority17,807 (39.4%)
Personal details
Born (1961-03-26) 26 March 1961 (age 63)
Rotherham, United Kingdom
Political partyConservative
SpouseFfion Jenkins
Alma materMagdalen College, Oxford
European Institute of Business Administration
ProfessionManagement consultant
Signature

William Jefferson Hague (born 26 March 1961) is a British politician. He is the Conservative Member of Parliament for Richmond, Yorkshire, and the current First Secretary of State and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.[1] He also served as Leader of the Opposition from 1997 until 2001.

Educated at a local comprehensive school, then the University of Oxford and INSEAD, Hague was first elected to the House of Commons in a by-election in 1989. Hague rose through the ranks of John Major's government and entered the Cabinet in 1995 as the Secretary of State for Wales. Following the Conservatives' defeat in the 1997 general election, he was elected as leader of the Conservative Party. He resigned as party leader after the 2001 general election following a landslide defeat to the Labour Party. He was the first leader of the Conservatives not to have become Prime Minister since Austen Chamberlain in the early 1920s.

On the backbenches, Hague began a career as an author, writing biographies of William Pitt the Younger and William Wilberforce. He also held several directorships, and worked as a consultant and public speaker. After David Cameron was elected leader of the Conservative Party in 2005, Hague returned to front line politics as shadow foreign secretary. And later in 2010, upon Cameron becoming the Prime Minister, Hague took on the roles of First Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary.

Early life

Hague was born in Rotherham in Yorkshire, and was educated at the private Ripon Grammar School and the state run Wath-upon-Dearne Comprehensive near Rotherham. Hague's father and mother ran a soft drinks manufacturing business which he used to work for during school holidays.[2]

He first made the national news at the age of 16 by speaking at the Conservative Party's 1977 national conference. In his speech he told the attenders, "Half of you won't be here in 30 or 40 years' time", but that others would have to live with consequences of a Labour government if it stayed in power.[3]

Hague studied PPE at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First-Class Honours. He was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA), but was also "convicted of electoral malpractice" in the process.[4] OUCA's official historian David Blair notes that Hague was actually elected on a platform pledging to clean up OUCA, but that this was "tarnished by accusations that he misused his position as Returning Officer to help the Magdalen candidate for the Presidency, Peter Halley. Hague was playing the classic game of using his powers as President to keep his faction in power, and Halley was duly elected...There were accusations of blatant ballot box stuffing."[5] On a subsequent visit to OUCA as a guest speaker in the 1990s, Hague was reported to have told them "It is not the election that one needs to worry about...it's more the tribunal thereafter." [6]

He was then President of the Oxford Union, a noted route to political office. Following university, Hague went on to study for a Master of Business Administration degree at INSEAD. He then worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where Archie Norman was his mentor.[7]

Member of Parliament

He was first an unsuccessful parliamentary candidate for Wentworth in 1987, but was then elected to Parliament in a by-election in 1989 as member for Richmond, North Yorkshire, succeeding former Home Secretary Leon Brittan. Following his election he was the youngest Conservative MP.

Government

Despite only having recently entered Parliament, Hague became part of the government in 1990, serving as Parliamentary Private Secretary for the Chancellor of the Exchequer Norman Lamont.[8] After Lamont was sacked in 1993, Hague moved to the Department of Social Security where he was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State. The following year he was promoted to Minister of State at the DSS with responsibility for Social Security and Disabled People.[8] His fast rise up through the government is attributed to his intelligence and skills in debate.[9]

He entered the Cabinet in 1995 as Secretary of State for Wales.[8] Hague made a good impression at the Welsh Office; his predecessor John Redwood had been heavily criticised in the role. Resolving not to repeat Redwood's attempt to mime the Welsh national anthem at a public event, Hague asked a Welsh Office civil servant, Ffion Jenkins, to teach him the words; they later married.[10] He continued serving in the Cabinet until the Conservatives were removed from power in the 1997 general election.

Leadership of the Conservative Party

Following the 1997 general election defeat, Hague was elected as the leader of the Conservative Party in succession to John Major, defeating more experienced figures such as Kenneth Clarke and Michael Howard. At the age of 36, Hague was tasked with rebuilding the Conservative Party by attempting to build a more modern image. £250,000 was spent on the 'Listening to Britain' campaign to try to put the Conservatives back in the touch with the public after losing power; he was also influenced by the "compassionate conservatism" ideology of George W. Bush, the Governor of Texas.[11]

Hague's leadership came under constant attack and his tenure was widely considered a failure.[citation needed] Some commentators viewed him as ill-prepared, or 'unelectable', as Opposition Leader.[citation needed] Hague himself feels his image never did recover after the first few months, when various public-relations exercises backfired disastrously. On one of these occasions he visited a theme park and he, his Chief of Staff Sebastian Coe and the local MP took a ride on a log flume wearing baseball caps emblazoned with the word 'HAGUE'.[12] Cecil Parkinson described the exercise as "juvenile".

During the 1998 Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth, the tabloid Sun's front page infamously read (referencing Monty Python's "Dead Parrot" sketch), "This party is no more ... it has ceased to be ... this is an ex-party. Cause of death: suicide."

Hague's authority was put in doubt with the promotion of Michael Portillo to the role of Shadow Chancellor in 2000[citation needed]. Within days Portillo reversed Conservative opposition to two of Labour's flagship policies, the minimum wage and independence of the Bank of England. From then and until the 2001 General Election Hague's supporters, led by Amanda Platell, fought an increasingly bitter battle with those of Portillo. Platell has said that she advised Hague to abandon the "fresh start" theme and to follow his instincts[citation needed]. This led to a number of further mistakes, such as the claim that he used to drink "14 pints of beer a day" when he was a teenager.[13]

Hague's reputation suffered further damage towards the end of his leadership, with a 2001 poll for the Daily Telegraph finding that 66% of voters considered him to be "a bit of a wally" and 70% of voters believed he would "say almost anything to win votes".[14]

"Foreign Land" speech

After a controversial party conference speech in March 2001, Hague was accused of xenophobia and racism by the left-wing media[citation needed]. In the speech, Hague said:

We have a Government that has contempt for the views of the people it governs.

There is nothing that the British people can talk about that this Labour Government doesn't deride.

Talk about Europe and they call you extreme. Talk about tax and they call you greedy. Talk about crime and they call you reactionary. Talk about immigration and they call you racist; talk about your nation and they call you Little Englanders ... This government thinks Britain would be all right if we had a different people. I think Britain would be all right, if only we had a different Government.

A Conservative Government that speaks with the voice of the British people.

A Conservative Government never embarrassed or ashamed of the British people.

A Conservative Government that trusts the people [...] This country must always offer sanctuary to those fleeing from injustice. Conservative Governments always have, and always will. But it's precisely those genuine refugees who are finding themselves elbowed aside.[15]

The speech was criticised in even traditionally Conservative newspapers such as The Sun and The Times[citation needed]. Former Conservative Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine, a prominent One Nation Conservative, was particularly critical of Hague's allegation that Britain was becoming a "foreign land", and confessed in newspaper interviews that he was uncertain as to whether he could support a Hague-led Conservative Party.[16] With hindsight, the speech served to cement the portrayal of the Conservatives' as "the nasty party" in the run-up to the general election[citation needed].

Skill in debate

Hague's critics were checked each Wednesday by his performance at Prime Minister's Questions and he sometimes bested Tony Blair during these sessions.[17][18] During one particular exchange, while responding to the Queen's Speech of 2000, Hague attacked the Prime Minister's record:

In more than 20 years in politics, he has betrayed every cause he believed in, contradicted every statement he has made, broken every promise he has given and breached every agreement that he has entered into... There is a lifetime of U-turns, errors and sell-outs. All those hon. Members who sit behind the Prime Minister and wonder whether they stand for anything any longer, or whether they defend any point of principle, know who has led them to that sorry state.

— [19]

Blair responded by criticising what he saw as Hague's "bandwagon" politics:

... he started the fuel protest bandwagon, then the floods bandwagon; on defence it became armour-plated, then on air traffic control it became airborne.... Yes, the right honourable Gentleman made a very witty, funny speech, but it summed up his leadership: good jokes, lousy judgment. I am afraid that in the end, if the right honourable Gentleman really aspires to stand at this Despatch Box, he will have to get his policies sorted out and his party sorted out, and offer a vision for the country's future, not a vision that would take us backwards.

— [20][21]

Resignation

On the morning of Labour's second consecutive landslide victory in the 2001 general election, Hague stated:"we have not been able to persuade a majority, or anything approaching a majority, that we are yet the alternative government that they need."[22] In the 2001 election the Conservative Party had gained only one seat from their disastrous 1997 election. Following the defeat, Hague resigned as leader, thus becoming the first full Conservative Party leader never to have been Prime Minister since 1834 .[23]

Backbenches

On the backbenches he occasionally spoke in the Commons on the issues of the day. While Hague[24] spoke in support of the military action proposed by Prime Minister Tony Blair during debate before the 2003 Iraq War, one could lipread Blair saying to his colleague, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw: "He's good, you know."[25]

Between 1997 and 2002 William Hague was the chairman of the International Democrat Union.

Hague's profile and personal, though not political, popularity have risen among both Conservative Party members and the wider public significantly since his spell as party leader. Since ceasing to be Leader of the Opposition, Hague has been an active media personality. He put in three much-praised appearances as a guest host on the BBC satirical news show Have I Got News For You in which he was also persuaded by Ian Hislop to admit that endorsing the soon-to-be-jailed Jeffrey Archer as the Conservative candidate for the post of Mayor of London was his "biggest mistake".

Other subsequent activities have included writing an in-depth biography of 18th century Prime Minister Pitt the Younger (published in 2004), teaching himself how to play the piano, and hosting the 25th anniversary programme for Radio 4 on the political television satire Yes Minister in 2005. In June 2007 he also published his second book, a biography of the anti-slave trade campaigner William Wilberforce, shortlisted for the 2008 Orwell Prize for political writing.[26] He has also enjoyed a career as one of the UK's most popular after-dinner speakers.[citation needed]

Hague's annual income is the highest in Parliament, with earnings of about £400,000 a year from directorships, consultancy, speeches, and his parliamentary salary. His income was previously estimated at £1 million annually, but he dropped several commitments and in effect took a salary cut of some £600,000 on becoming Shadow Foreign Secretary in 2005.[27][28]

Along with former Prime Minister John Major, former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke, and Hague's successor Iain Duncan Smith, Hague served for a time on the Conservative Leadership Council, which was itself set up by Michael Howard upon his unopposed election as Conservative Party Leader in 2003.

In the 2005 Conservative leadership election Hague backed eventual winner David Cameron.

Hague is the chairman of the Team 2 Thousand donor club, a society for donors to the Conservative party.

He is a member of Conservative Friends of Israel, a group which he joined when he was 15.[29]

Return to the Shadow Cabinet

Following the 2005 General Election, the Conservative Party leader Michael Howard offered Hague the post of Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer, but he turned the post down. Hague apparently told Howard that his business commitments would make it difficult for him to take on such a high profile job.[30]

On 6 December 2005, David Cameron was elected leader of the Conservative party. Hague was offered and accepted the role of Shadow Foreign Secretary and Senior Member of the Shadow Cabinet, effectively serving as Cameron's deputy (though not formally, unlike previous deputy Conservative leaders Willie Whitelaw, Peter Lilley and Michael Ancram). He had been widely tipped to return to the front bench under either Cameron or leadership contest runner-up David Davis.

On 30 January 2006, per David Cameron's instructions, Hague traveled to Brussels for talks to pull Conservative Party MEPs out of the European People's Party–European Democrats (EPP-ED) group in the European Parliament. (Daily Telegraph, 30 Jan 2006). Further, on 15 February 2006, Hague stood in during David Cameron's paternity leave at Prime Minister's Questions. This appearance gave rise to jokes at the expense of Blair, that all three parties that day were being led by 'stand ins', with the Liberal Democrats represented by acting leader Sir Menzies Campbell, the Labour Party by the departing Blair, and the Conservatives by Hague. Hague again deputised for Cameron for several sessions in 2006. His standing in for Cameron at PMQs had increased the resemblance of his role to that of a deputy leader, but he retained only the title Senior Member of the Shadow Cabinet. Despite still being relatively young for an MP, Hague has been described as the Conservative Party's "elder statesman".[31]

Foreign Secretary

Hague met U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after his appointment as Foreign Secretary

Hague's appointment as Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs was Prime Minister David Cameron's first. He was also appointed to the honorary position of First Secretary of State. In his first overseas visit as Foreign Secretary, Hague met with United States Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in Washington, D.C.[32]

In August 2010, Hague set out a values based foreign policy. He said that "We cannot have a foreign policy without a conscience. Foreign policy is domestic policy written large. The values we live by at home do not stop at our shores. Human rights are not the only issue that informs the making of foreign policy, but they are indivisible from it, not least because the consequences of foreign policy failure are human".[33]

Personal life

William Hague, a Judo enthusiast[34], married his wife Ffion, née Jenkins, at the House of Commons Crypt in 1997. The couple have had a number of miscarriages over the years of their marriage.[35] He is currently a Vice President of the Friends of the British Library, which provides funding support to the British Library to make new acquisitions.[36] Mr Hague is also a Patron of the European Youth Parliament UK,[37] an educational charity organisation that runs debating competitions and discussion forums across the UK.

Christopher Myers resignation

In early September 2010, a number of newspapers including The Daily Telegraph, The Independent and Daily Mail published stories concerning the fallout from allegations surrounding Hague's friendship with 25 year old Christopher Myers, a law graduate from Durham University whom he employed a parliamentary special adviser. A spokesperson noted that "Any suggestion that the Foreign Secretary's relationship with Chris Myers is anything other than a purely professional one is wholly inaccurate and unfounded." [38][39] On 1 September 2010, Myers resigned from his position in the light of the press allegations.[40] The media stories lead Hague to make a public statement concerning his private life and his marriage.[41] As confirmed in the press, he also confirmed that he had "occasionally" shared a hotel room with Mr Myers.[42] A spokesperson for the Prime Minister David Cameron reported that he offered his "full support" over the media rumours.[43]

Awards

Styles

  • Mr William Hague (1961–89)
  • Mr William Hague MP (1989–95)
  • The Rt. Hon. William Hague MP (1995–)

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "Her Majesty's Government". Number10.gov.uk. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  2. ^ "Profile: William Hague". BBC News. 14 May 2010.
  3. ^ "Your favourite Conference Clips". The Daily Politics. British Broadcasting Corporation. 3 October 2007. Retrieved 28 September 2008.
  4. ^ Crick, Michael (5 October 2000). "Through a beer glass darkly - Profiles, People". London: The Independent. Retrieved 22 May 2010.
  5. ^ David Blair, and ed. Andrew Page, The History of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA, Oxford, 1995), p.33
  6. ^ [1][dead link]
  7. ^ Roth, Andrew (20 March 2001). "Archie Norman". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 6 April 2008.
  8. ^ a b c "Rt Hon William Hague MP – profile". Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  9. ^ "William Hague". BBC News. 16 October 2002. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  10. ^ "'Spin doctor' grooms Ffion's election look". BBC News. 2 May 2001. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  11. ^ "The all new William Hague". BBC News. 13 April 1999. Retrieved 1 July 2008.
  12. ^ "Picture imperfect". BBC News website. 26 December 2004. Retrieved 29 August 2010.
  13. ^ "Hague: I drank 14 pints a day". BBC News. 8 August 2000. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  14. ^ "Poll monitor: Labour looks hard to beat". BBC News. 9 February 2001.
  15. ^ "Hague's 'foreign land' speech". London: guardian.co.uk. 4 March 2001. Retrieved 13 July 2008.
  16. ^ "Hague plays 'patriot' card". BBC News. 4 March 2001. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  17. ^ Ivens, Martin (10 June 2007). "Back in the Tory fold, while they're a winning team". London: Times Online. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  18. ^ Campbell, Alastair (24 June 2007). "Wit, oratory – and evasion. A master debater at work". London: Guardian. Retrieved 27 March 2010.
  19. ^ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 6 Dec 2000 (pt 6)". Hansard. Retrieved 13 July 2008.
  20. ^ [2][dead link]
  21. ^ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 6 Dec 2000 (pt 8)". Hansard.
  22. ^ "This week's panel". BBC. 30 April 2008. Retrieved 13 July 2008.
  23. ^ Template:Cite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leaders of the Conservative Party Wikipedia Date = 5 August 2010
  24. ^ "House of Commons Hansard Debates for 18 Mar 2003 (pt 14)". Hansard.
  25. ^ "Tory boy". ThePost.ie. Retrieved 13 July 2008.
  26. ^ "Shortlist 2008", The Orwell Prize
  27. ^ Browne, Anthony; Coates, Sam (10 November 2006). "Hague pays dearly for his promotion to the Shadow Cabinet". London: The Times (London). Retrieved 8 December 2006.
  28. ^ House of Commons. "Full list of his registered interests". Publications.parliament.uk. Retrieved 17 April 2010.
  29. ^ "William Hague's Schmooze With The Jewish News". Totally Jewish. 25 March 2010.
  30. ^ Watt, Nicholas (12 May 2005). "Hague rejects post of shadow chancellor". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 4 May 2008.
  31. ^ "Cameron plans his own night of long knives in Shadow Cabinet clear-out". London: Daily Mail. 15 April 2008. Retrieved 16 April 2008.
  32. ^ "Hague discusses Afghan mission with Clinton in US". BBC News website. 14 May 2010. Retrieved 15 May 2010.
  33. ^ Human rights are key to our foreign policy
  34. ^ Morton, Cole (23 July 2000). "How judo made a man out of Hague". The Independent. London. Retrieved 11 June 2010.
  35. ^ http://blogs.notw.co.uk/politics/2010/09/william-hagues-extraordinary-statement-in-full.html
  36. ^ "Friends of the British Library Annual Report 2006/07" (PDF). Retrieved 7 September 2009.
  37. ^ http://www.eypuk.org
  38. ^ Martin Beckford "William Hague denies inappropriate relationship with special advisor", Daily Telegraph, 1 September 2010. Retrieved 1/9/2010.
  39. ^ Tim Shipman "William Hague denies relationship with his new male adviser, 25", Daily Mail (website), 1 September 2010. Retrieved 1/9/2010.
  40. ^ 'William Hague's adviser Myers resigns' BBC News 1 September 2010.
  41. ^ Tim Shipman 'Our baby agony, as young male aide steps down, Hague denies gay smears' Mail Online 2 September 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
  42. ^ Kim Sengupta 'Hague denies rumours he is gay - but special adviser steps down'The Independent 2 September 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
  43. ^ 'William Hague has 'Cameron's full support' over rumours' BBC News 2 September 2010. Retrieved 2 September 2010.
  44. ^ "Royal Society of Literature All Fellows". Royal Society of Literature. Retrieved 9 August 2010.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Richmond (Yorks)
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Preceded by Secretary of State for Wales
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