William Hague

William Hague (born March 26, 1961) is a British politician and former leader of the UK Conservative Party. Hague was born in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, a strongly working-class area, and caused a sensation at the age of sixteen by speaking at the Conservative party's national conference.

Subsequently, Hague went to Magdalen College, Oxford, and while there was President of the Oxford Union, a noted breeding-ground for political hopefuls and high-flyers. Fulfilling his early promise, he was elected to Parliament as member for Richmond, North Yorkshire in 1989, and entered the Cabinet in 1995 as Secretary of State for Wales.

Hague made a good showing at the Welsh Office[?], partly because his predecessor, John Redwood, had been such a disaster in the role. Resolving not to emulate Redwood's farcical attempt to mime to the Welsh national anthem at a public event, Hague recruited a female civil servant, Ffion Jenkins[?], to teach him the words. He later married her.

In 1997, Hague was elected leader of the Conservative Party in succession to John Major, in the hope that a fresh young face would counteract the public appeal of Tony Blair. This change proved unsuccesful, however, as the Conservatives won only one more seat in the 2001 General Election than they had in the 1997 election. Following this defeat, Hague resigned as leader, thus becoming the first Tory leader since Sir Austen Chamberlain not to have become Prime Minister

William Hague is no longer being in the political spot light, and it seems unlikely that he will return to front-line politics in the near future.