William Hague

**William Jefferson Hague, Baron Hague of Richmond** (pronounced _HAIG_; born 26 March 1961) is a British politician. He was Foreign Secretary and First Secretary of State. He was the leader of the Conservative Party from June 1997 to September 2001. He was the Member of Parliament for the Richmond (York) constituency in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

William Hague was born in Rotherham in West Riding of Yorkshire, England. He first gained national attention when he spoke at the 1977 Conservative Party conference aged 16. He was educated at the University of Oxford. Hague first became a Member of Parliament at a by-election in 1989. In 1995, William Hague was made the Secretary of State for Wales until 1997 when the Conservatives lost the general election. He was elected as Conservative Party leader in 1997. Following the Conservative's defeat in the 2001 General Election, he resigned from the position and was succeeded by Iain Duncan Smith.

He went on to write biographies of William Pitt the Younger and William Wilberforce. In 2005, when David Cameron became the Conservative Party leader, Hague was made the Shadow Foreign Secretary and Secretary of State.

Hague became the Foreign Secretary after the 2010 election in the Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition government. Issues that he was involved in included the Arab Spring and Syrian Civil War as well as the crisis in Crimea. Hague thinks Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should be removed from power, and the Cameron government wanted to help the opposition with air strikes in 2013, but Parliament did not agree and the plans did not go forward. Hague did not run for reelection in the 2015 election and mostly retired from politics after that. He was made a member of the House of Lords as **Baron Hague of Richmond**, where he is a member today.

## Awards

- _The Spectator's_ "Parliamentarian of the Year Award" (1998)
- History Book of the Year in the 2005 British Book Awards, for _William Pitt the Younger_
- _The Spectator's_ 'Speech of the Year Award' (2007)
- The Trustees Award at the 2008 Longman/History Today Awards
- Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature (2009)

## Infobox (officeholder)

- **honorific-prefix**: The Right Honourable
- **name**: The Lord Hague of Richmond
- **image**: File:William Hague (2010).jpg
- **office**: Leader of the House of Commons
- **primeminister**: David Cameron
- **term start**: 14 July 2014
- **term end**: 8 May 2015
- **predecessor**: Andrew Lansley
- **successor**: Chris Grayling
- **office1**: First Secretary of State
- **primeminister1**: David Cameron
- **term start1**: 12 May 2010
- **term end1**: 8 May 2015
- **predecessor1**: Peter Mandelson, Lord Mandelson
- **successor1**: George Osborne
- **office2**: Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
- **primeminister2**: David Cameron
- **term start2**: 12 May 2010
- **term end2**: 14 July 2014
- **predecessor2**: David Miliband
- **successor2**: Philip Hammond
- **office3**: Shadow Foreign Secretary
- **leader3**: David Cameron
- **term start3**: 6 December 2005
- **term end3**: 11 May 2010
- **predecessor3**: Liam Fox
- **successor3**: David Miliband
- **office4**: Leader of the Opposition (United Kingdom), Leader of the Opposition
- **monarch4**: Elizabeth II
- **primeminister4**: Tony Blair
- **deputy4**: Peter Lilley
Michael Portillo
- **term start4**: 19 June 1997
- **term end4**: 13 September 2001
- **predecessor4**: John Major
- **successor4**: Iain Duncan Smith
- **office5**: Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party
- **term start5**: 19 June 1997
- **term end5**: 13 September 2001
- **predecessor5**: John Major
- **successor5**: Iain Duncan Smith
- **office6**: Official Opposition Shadow Cabinet (United Kingdom), Shadow Secretary of State for Wales
- **leader6**: John Major
- **term start6**: 2 May 1997
- **term end6**: 19 June 1997
- **predecessor6**: Ron Davies (Welsh politician), Ron Davies
- **successor6**: Michael Ancram
- **office7**: Secretary of State for Wales
- **primeminister7**: John Major
- **term start7**: 5 July 1995
- **term end7**: 2 May 1997
- **predecessor7**: David Hunt, Baron Hunt of Wirral, David Hunt
- **successor7**: Ron Davies (Welsh politician), Ron Davies
- **office8**: Department of Social Security, Minister of State for the Disabled
- **primeminister8**: John Major
- **term start8**: 20 July 1994
- **term end8**: 5 July 1995
- **predecessor8**: Nicholas Scott
- **successor8**: Alistair Burt
- **office9**: Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Member of Parliament
for Richmond (Yorks) (UK Parliament constituency), Richmond (Yorks)
- **term start9**: 23 February 1989
- **term end9**: 7 May 2015
- **predecessor9**: Leon Brittan
- **successor9**: Rishi Sunak
- **majority9**: 23,336 (43.7%)
- **birth name**: William Jefferson Hague
- **birth place**: Rotherham, United Kingdom
- **party**: Conservative Party (UK), Conservative
- **spouse**: Ffion Jenkins
- **alma mater**: Magdalen College, Oxford
INSEAD, European Institute of Business Administration
- **website**: [http://www.parliament.uk/biographies/william-hague/25550/ Parliamentary website]
[http://www.fco.gov.uk/ Government website]
- **honorific suffix**: Privy Council of the United Kingdom, PC