The first question that historians will always ask about the Tory leadership election of 2001 is why Michael Portillo lost. Portillo was the one candidate of stature who was capable of uniting right and left of the party. He was the only candidate who possessed a clear vision of how the party should move forward after two crushing electoral setbacks. He had the support of a majority of the shadow cabinet. He had trained like a racehorse to become Tory leader since his early twenties. And yet the prize went to a virtual unknown, with no ministerial experience.

The great merit of this book by Simon Walters is that he provides an answer to this important question. Walters, political editor of the Mail on Sunday (I should add that we were close colleagues at the Sunday Express for five years) has carried out an autopsy on William Hague's doomed period as Tory leader. He has spoken to an astonishingly wide range of sources - Archie Norman, Francis Maude, Ann Widdecombe, John Redwood and scores of others. They have all been extremely candid. Walters has unearthed a vast cache of new material about the abyss that divided Hague and his allies from the Portillo circle.

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