Every Tory leader needs a William

20 May 2006

William Hague tells Fraser Nelson that the Tory party has changed completely since he led it — and that the best advice he has given David Cameron is dietary

One question the party may be asking after election day is whether they should enter a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. Unlike Cameron, Hague will discuss the idea. ‘Over the next couple of decades, there is now a greater likelihood of hung parliaments and parties having to co-operate. It’s just the way the electoral arithmetic works out,’ he says. But he points to ad hoc co-operation rather than formal coalition. ‘There are some sensible Lib Dems, but there are others whose instincts are very left-wing. I have no idea whether the split Liberal party, and one now with rather weak leadership, would be willing or able to work with a minority Conservative administration.’

He is strikingly confident that Labour will not win the next election outright. ‘I said there would be four phases of New Labour: fascination, admiration, disillusionment and contempt. And I think we have just in the last few weeks arrived at contempt. I said that in 1998 and thought all this would take just two years. In fact it’s been eight until we’ve arrived at what’s always seemed blindingly obvious to me about this government. And this means a serious chance of winning the next election.’

When asked what is the best advice he has given to Cameron, he throws his head back and rakes his memory. His choice has nothing to do with policy, tactics or even jokes — but how a leader should treat his own body. ‘Despite being one of the busiest people in the world, you have to arrive at the election campaign fitter and fresher and calmer than ever. That requires the right sort of food, sleep and exercise, which needs rigorous policing. I had sinusitis, famously, within a year of being leader. But I sorted myself out. I got Seb Coe in to create a whole regime that allows you to work hard. Whatever else went wrong after that, I wasn’t tired.’