William Jefferson Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond | British Politician, Baron of Richmond

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related content </a> </div> </div> </div> </div><div class="bg-gray-50 p-15 rounded module-spacing recent-news d-flex flex-column float-false"> <div> <h2 class="font-weight-bold font-14 m-0 d-inline"> News <span class="text-gray-600">•</span> </h2> <div class="recent-news-item first-recent-news-item d-inline"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/11/13/russia-ukraine-war-zelensky-putin-trump-latest-news/" rel="nofollow">Ukraine-Russia war live: Abandoning Ukraine would be bigger US failure than Afghanistan, says Hague</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 13, 2024, 9:40 PM ET (The Telegraph) <button class="btn btn-link d-inline p-0 font-12 js-toggle-recent-news"> <span class="text-gray-500">...</span><span>(Show more)</span> </button> </span> </div> </div> <div class="rest-of-recent-news-items"> <div class="recent-news-item mt-5"> <a class="font-14 gtm-ap-news-link" href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2024/11/05/final-five-candidates-next-oxford-university-chancellor/" rel="nofollow">Final five candidates to be next Oxford University chancellor revealed</a> <span class="font-14 text-gray-600"> <span>•</span> Nov. 6, 2024, 1:10 AM ET (The Telegraph) </span> </div> <button class="js-toggle-recent-news d-flex btn btn-unstyled font-14 pr-10 rounded-sm mt-10" aria-label="Toggle additional news items"> Show less <em class="material-icons" data-icon="expand_less"></em> </button> </div> </div><span class="marker before-article"></span><section data-level="1" id="ref1"><span class="marker PREMOD1 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph"><strong><span id="ref1046278"></span>William Jefferson Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond</strong> (born March 26, 1961, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Rotherham" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Rotherham</a>, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Yorkshire-former-county-England" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Yorkshire</a>, England) , Baron Hague of Richmond is a British politician who served as leader of the <span id="ref1069376"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Conservative-Party-political-party-United-Kingdom" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Conservative Party</a> (1997–2001) and as foreign secretary under Prime Minister <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Cameron" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">David Cameron</a> (2010–14).</p><span class="marker MOD1 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD2 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Hague was born into a family that ran a small soft-drink business. He attended local schools—like <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/John-Major" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">John Major</a>, his immediate predecessor as <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="Conservative" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Conservative" data-type="MW">Conservative</a> leader, but unlike most prominent Tories. By age 12 he devoted himself to following politics, and at 16 he spoke to his first Conservative Party conference. The confident attack on the then <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Labour-Party-political-party" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Labour</a> government by a 16-year-old schoolboy with a pronounced northern accent <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="captivated" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/captivated" data-type="MW">captivated</a> the media and impressed the Conservative leader, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Margaret-Thatcher" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Margaret Thatcher</a>.</p><span class="marker MOD2 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD3 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Hague attended the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/University-of-Oxford" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">University of Oxford</a>, was elected president of the Oxford Union debating society, and obtained a first-class honours degree in philosophy, politics, and economics. After graduation he joined the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/Royal-Dutch-Shell-PLC" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Shell Oil Co.</a> as a management trainee, but a year later he was recruited by management consultants McKinsey and Co.</p><div class="module-spacing"> </div><span class="marker MOD3 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD4 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In February 1989 he was selected to contest a by-election in the “safe” Conservative seat of Richmond, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/North-Yorkshire" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">North Yorkshire</a>, and within two years he had become parliamentary private secretary to the chancellor of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/money/Exchequer" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Exchequer</a>, Norman Lamont. When Major, by then <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/prime-minister" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">prime minister</a>, appointed him secretary of state for Wales in 1995, Hague at age 34 became <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/United-Kingdom" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">Britain’s</a> youngest cabinet minister since <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Harold-Wilson-Baron-Wilson-of-Rievaulx" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Harold Wilson</a> in 1947. Despite having no previous connections with Wales, Hague won the respect of his new <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="constituents" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/constituents" data-type="MW">constituents</a> for his sympathy, good humour, and intelligence.</p><span class="marker MOD4 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD5 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In May 1997, following the party’s election defeat—the worst since 1906—by the revived Labour Party under <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Tony-Blair" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Tony Blair</a>, Major announced his resignation as Conservative Party leader. One of the men widely tipped as a favourite for the leadership, Michael Portillo, had lost his seat in the election and was out of the running, while other <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="contenders" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/contenders" data-type="MW">contenders</a> from the party’s right wing had their detractors. Hague’s centre-right platform, imbued with opposition to transferring additional authority to <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/European-Union" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">European Union</a> (EU) institutions (a view popular among the Conservative rump), offered a compromise, and on June 19, 1997, on the third ballot, Hague at age 36 became the youngest leader of a major <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/political-party" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">political party</a> in the United Kingdom in 200 years.</p><span class="marker MOD5 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD6 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Hague then set about reviving his party’s fortunes. He announced a series of reforms, similar to those <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="implemented" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/implemented" data-type="MW">implemented</a> by Labour in the 1980s and early ’90s, to bring greater internal <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="democracy" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/democracy" data-type="MW">democracy</a> to his party, including giving local party members a say in future leadership elections. At his first party conference as Conservative leader, Hague sought to soften the party’s image by declaring support for more compassionate policies. He also advocated “understanding and tolerance of people making their own decisions about how they lead their lives,” including accepting the rights of people to have same-sex relationships or to bear and raise children outside marriage. Hague’s speech marked a clear break with the strictly “pro-family” <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="ethos" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/ethos" data-type="MW">ethos</a> of the Thatcher years.</p><span class="marker MOD6 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD7 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">In spite of those efforts, the Tories performed disastrously at the polls in 2001, and Hague stepped down as party leader. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Iain-Duncan-Smith" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Iain Duncan Smith</a> was elected to succeed him, and Hague receded to the backbenches. In 2005 Hague returned to frontbench politics when <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/David-Cameron" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">David Cameron</a> selected him to serve as shadow foreign secretary. In the <span id="ref1078898"></span><a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/British-general-election-of-2010" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">general election of 2010</a> Hague easily won reelection, and, after the confirmation of Cameron as prime minister, Hague was named foreign secretary in Cameron’s cabinet. His <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="tenure" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tenure" data-type="MW">tenure</a> in that post was characterized by an understated <a class="md-dictionary-link md-dictionary-tt-off mw" data-term="pragmatism" href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pragmatism" data-type="MW">pragmatism</a>, and the soft <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Euroskepticism" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">Euroskepticism</a> that Hague had expressed as Conservative leader was eclipsed by elements within the party who wished to withdraw from the EU entirely. He stepped down in July 2014 as part of a broader cabinet reshuffle and was named leader of the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/House-of-Commons-British-government" class="md-crosslink autoxref " data-show-preview="true">House of Commons</a>. In May 2015 Hague left the House of Commons, and in October he was made a life peer.</p><div class="module-spacing"> <DIV class="marketing-INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION marketing-content" data-marketing-id="INLINE_SUBSCRIPTION"><style> .student-promo-banner-wrapper { container-type: inline-size; margin-bottom: 15px; } @container (min-width: 475px) { .student-promo-banner { flex-direction: row; } .student-promo-banner-img-wrapper { margin-bottom: 0; margin-right: 10px; justify-content: flex-start; } .student-promo-banner-text-wrapper { text-align: left; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 10px; } .student-promo-banner-button-wrapper { margin-right: 0; } }</style> <div class="student-promo-banner-wrapper"> <div class="student-promo-banner d-flex flex-column align-items-center bg-blue rounded p-20"> <div class="student-promo-banner-img-wrapper mb-20 mr-0 d-flex justify-content-center"> <img class="rounded" style="max-width: 100px; min-width: 80px" src="https://cdn.britannica.com/marketing/BlueThistle.webp" /> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-text-wrapper ml-0 mb-10 text-center text-white"> <div class="h2 mb-10">Get Unlimited Access</div> <div class="h4 font-weight-semi-bold">Try Britannica Premium for free and discover more.</div> </div> <div class="student-promo-banner-button-wrapper d-flex justify-content-center align-items-center ml-auto mr-auto"> <a class="btn btn-m btn-orange" href="https://premium.britannica.com/premium-membership/?utm_source=premium&utm_medium=inline-cta&utm_campaign=black-friday-2024">Subscribe</a> </div> </div> </div> </DIV></div><div class="one-good-fact-module"> </div><span class="marker MOD7 mod-inline"></span><span class="marker PREMOD8 mod-inline"></span><p class="topic-paragraph">Hague wrote a number of well-received biographies of <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Pitt-the-Younger" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">William Pitt the Younger</a> (2004) and <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/William-Wilberforce" class="md-crosslink " data-show-preview="true">William Wilberforce</a> (2007).</p><span class="marker MOD8 mod-inline"></span></section> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/contributor/Peter-Kellner/5078">Peter Kellner</a></span> <span class="md-signature"><a href="/editor/The-Editors-of-Encyclopaedia-Britannica/4419">The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica</a></span><span class="marker end-of-content"></span><span class="marker after-article"></span></div> <div id="chatbot-root"></div> </div> </div> </div> <div class="ai-dialog-placeholder"></div> </div> </div> <aside class="col-md-da-320"></aside> </div> </div> </div> </div> </article></div> </div></div> </div> </main> <div id="md-footer"></div> <noscript><iframe src="//www.googletagmanager.com/ns.html?id=GTM-5W6NC8" height="0" width="0" style="display:none;visibility:hidden"></iframe></noscript> <script type="text/javascript" id="_informizely_script_tag"> var IzWidget = IzWidget || {}; 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William Jefferson Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond | British Politician, Baron of Richmond | Britannica