Biography
William grew up in South Yorkshire
He was born in Rotherham on 26 March,1961, to parents Nigel and Stella Hague, owners of a family business, Hague’s Soft Drinks. With three older sisters, Jane, Veronica and Sally, he was brought up in the old mining village of Greasbrough and went to the village school, until the family moved to rural Wentworth two miles away. From the age of 11, he attended Wath-upon-Dearne Comprehensive School, where the politics teacher, Robert Godber, was an important influence on him. In 1977, at the age of 16, he won the Yorkshire TV public speaking competition and then addressed the Conservative conference in Blackpool, causing a media sensation.
He then won a place at Oxford…..
No one from William’s family had ever been to university, and no one from his school had been to Oxford for many years, but he applied to Magdalen College and was accepted in 1979. Three years as an undergraduate was a transformational experience for him. He became President of the Oxford Union, President of the Oxford University Conservative Association and graduated in 1982 with First Class Honours in Philosophy, Politics and Economics.
...before starting a business career
Although he clearly had political ambitions, William recognised he needed wider experience of the world. He first joined Shell UK as a graduate trainee, taking a few months out to write speeches for the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Sir Geoffrey Howe, in the 1983 election campaign. He then moved to McKinsey and Co, the consulting firm, and spent five years learning about business, including taking an MBA at INSEAD in France, from where he graduated with Distinction in 1986. He often refers to the year he spent there, living in Fontainebleau with friends from all over the world, as one of the happiest of his life. Returning to McKinsey he worked on retail and banking projects and advised Oxford University on the launch of its development campaign to attract private sector funding.
His chance to enter parliament came unexpectedly
In 1989 the sudden departure of Sir Leon Brittan to Brussels opened up a by-election in William’s native Yorkshire. He was elected as the MP for Richmond, Yorkshire, in February of that year, and would ultimately be elected for that seat six times, in his later years there sometimes winning the largest Conservative majorities in the country. William became a strong advocate for rural areas and moved swiftly up the parliamentary ranks as aide to another Chancellor of the Exchequer, Norman Lamont.
Ministerial roles led to a big change in his life…
William was made pensions minister in 1993, handling the equalisation of the pension age for men and women. In 1994 he became Minister for Disabled People, leading to what he has always said is his proudest achievement in politics: he designed and took through parliament the Disability Discrimination Act of 1995. This was a landmark piece of legislation that outlawed discrimination against millions of people and brought major improvements in employment, transport and accessing services for people with physical and mental disabilities. His success led to him being appointed in 1995 as the youngest cabinet minister since Harold Wilson, as Secretary of State for Wales, becoming a member of the Privy Council at the same time. Over the next two years he championed apprenticeships, education and environmental issues. His work in Wales changed his life: there he met his wife Ffion, who famously taught him to sing the Welsh National Anthem while sitting on a churchyard wall in Snowdonia. They married in 1997, and they made Wales their home on leaving politics two decades later.
William became Tory leader after the huge election defeat of 1997
Conservative MPs elected William as the Leader of the Opposition in June 1997. Although this was to be the least successful part of his career, he has always said he doesn’t regret taking this on, and that “somebody had to do the night shift”. He became well known for his skill at Prime Minister’s Questions and led the Conservatives to victories in local and European elections, but he could not significantly dent the popularity of Tony Blair in his first term. Having failed to win the 2001 general election, he resigned as leader with effect from September that year.
But political defeat led him to broaden his interests
After resigning the party leadership, William decided to do many things that political life at a senior level had prevented him from doing. Aged 40, he learned to play the piano over the following four years. He also wrote his books on William Pitt the Younger, which was published in 2004 and won the History Book of the Year award, and William Wilberforce, which came out in 2007. Both books won critical acclaim. William also developed his writing career as a newspaper columnist for the first time, writing weekly in The News of the World until he returned to frontline politics in 2005.
He went back to help David Cameron
William supported David Cameron's leadership bid and agreed to become Shadow Foreign Secretary when Cameron was elected. For the next 10 years he handled foreign affairs, in government and in opposition, and deputised for Cameron when necessary. In 2010, William led the Conservative negotiating team that agreed the coalition government with the Liberal Democrats. He became First Secretary of State and Foreign Secretary in the new administration.
His time as Foreign Secretary was the peak of his political career …
As Foreign Secretary, William dealt with turmoil in the Middle East, overseeing the evacuation of British nationals from Egypt and winning UN backing for military intervention in Libya. He spent much time on fruitless efforts to end the conflict in Syria but was part of the more successful international negotiation to agree a nuclear deal with Iran. In 2012 he co-founded the Preventing Sexual Violence in Conflict Initiative with Angelina Jolie and took the case for ending impunity for such crimes to the UN Security Council and the G8. Away from conflict zones, William focused as Foreign Secretary on expanding Britain's diplomatic reach, particularly in Latin America, and on restoring the Foreign Office as an institution by re opening its language school and founding a diplomatic Academy. In visiting 83 countries, some of them many times, he was the most travelled Foreign Secretary in British history.
…. Before leaving politics in 2015
William told David Cameron in 2013 that ten years back in frontline politics would be enough. In 2014 he accordingly left the Foreign Office and announced he would be standing down from the House of Commons after a quarter of a century as an MP. He served as Leader of the House of Commons for his last ten months in an institution he loved, but in which he did not want to serve for the rest of his life. He became a life peer and entered the House of Lords as Lord Hague of Richmond in November 2015. William received the Champions for Change Award for Leadership from the International Centre for Research on Women, the Hillary R Clinton Award for Advancing Women in Peace and Security, and the John Diefenbaker Defender of Human Rights and Freedoms Award from the Government of Canada.
… And becoming as busy as ever in new ways
Since leaving the Commons, William has divided his time between business, charity and writing. In the private sector he is a Director of Intercontinental Exchange, chair of ICE Futures Europe, senior adviser to Citi, chair of the international advisory group of Linklaters, and chair of the international Advisory Board of Hakluyt. In the charitable sector he served for five years as chair of the defence think tank RUSI (the Royal United Services Institute), before becoming chair of what is now The Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 2020. He has worked with Prince William on combating the illegal wildlife trade for many years and helped to create United for Wildlife, of which he is co-chair. This brings together more than 400 global companies and organisations to try to make impossible the use of private sector infrastructure by the illegal wildlife trade. William has also supported the Prince and Princess in their work on homelessness, early childhood, mental health, and the establishment of the Earthshot Prize.
In the media world, William became a columnist of the Daily Telegraph – writing in strong opposition to Brexit in the referendum of 2016 - and moved to the Times in 2021, where he is now a weekly columnist. He also appears weekly on Times Radio, and hosts a monthly edition of a podcast, The Story, for The Times and Sunday Times. He writes on politics, geopolitics, nature and the critical importance of science and technology. In 2023/24, William has co-authored three papers with Tony Blair on the need for Britain to have a new national purpose of global leadership in science, innovation and artificial intelligence, and how government can better support universities and research institutions. Given his many activities, he has been on leave of absence from the House of Lords since 2021.
William and Ffion have recently completed the restoration and renovation of their home in mid Wales, where they host friends and their extended family. They have planted more than seven thousand trees to create wildlife habitat. William holds honorary degrees from the universities of York and Lancaster, is an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and an active member of many other clubs, associations and charities. He enjoys martial arts and is a member of the British Judo Federation.
