William Hague As Prime Minister

If William Hague won the election when he was leader of the Conservative Party, then how would he run the UK and domestic policies? Assume he wins a comfortable majority as well.

I am more interested in what he does, not how he won the election.
 
I would say winning 2001 is impossible. Hague regularly trounced Blair in PMQs but in all other categories, he was outmatched.

One way to get Hague as Prime Minister would be to have Michael Howard win the leadership election (have the Paxman interview go better or have Windecombe be discredited) and have Hague become his Deputy and Shadow Chancellor, 2001 goes much better in the sense that the Tories gain forty seats instead of one due to Howard leading the party into modernisation and detoxification. Hague's smashing of Gordon Brown in the Commons could actually weaken the latter's position in the Labour Cabinet if he is seen as a punching bag for the Tories, but 2005 also goes better for the Conservatives as the LibDem "decapitation" strategy completely flops and the Tories now have around 240 seats, meaning that the Labour majority is now paper-thin.

Tony Blair resigns as Prime Minister and Gordon Brown could take over earlier, barring a challenge from Jack Straw if he feels more confident about being able to beat Brown, and having to cope with 2005-2010 with a small majority, Hague takes over from Howard and becomes popular in the country, being the more approachable and professional Hague of 2010 instead of baseball-cap Hague for OTL 2001. The government may collapse in 2008 or 2009 which allows Hague's Conservatives to roll in with a majority of 30-40.
 
I agree that if you want to see Hague in office, you need him not to be the Conservative leader from 1997-2001 and instead, he should become leader after the 2005 election.

If this happens, I see him being to Cameron's right on most issues, though probably still open to a deal with the Lib Dems in the event of a hung parliament (he was associated with the SDP at one stage, apparently).

He'd be moderately Euroskeptic-though as he's Foreign Sec currently IOTL, I don't see much changing in that regard. One advantage he'll have in comparison to Cameron will be the lack of a "Toff" image.

I'd imagine Cameron being fairly high up in the Cabenet, though I don't see Osborn being as prominent somehow.

If you want an earlier Hague Premiership (Eg in 2001), your best bet would be to have Kinnock win in 1992. The Tories stand a good chance of winning in 1997, lead preferably by someone who won't want to stay on long-term (perhaps Hurd? Haseltine? or perhaps Major stays on after the 1992 defeat if it's narrow enough??). Hague works his way up the Shadow cabinet (and the cabinet) in the years 1992-2001 (just about doable imho) and when whoever's in power steps down in 2001, Hague could be in a good position to take the reigns (I see Portillo as a more obvious Thatcherright successor, but I suppose him self-distructing in some way could be possible).

Or you could have Kinnock win in 1997 despite Black Wednesday (unlike a lot of people I don't see 1997 as an obvious Tory win in a Kinnock wins TL, though imho it'd be pretty likely). So Kinnock and co are back in for another term by the skin of their teeth and the Tory leader gets the blaim for it, leading to Hague's assension to the leadership.

The fuel crisis of 2000 goes worse for a dying Kinnock government than it did IOTL (butterflies could mean it happens just before a theoretical General Election as well) and Hague wins despite the good economy with a comfortable majority.

In these circumstances, I still see the boom happening, though it might be less severe than OTL (and therefore we could be spared the worst excesses of the crash). In Foreign issues, I see Hague having a close working relationship with Bush (assuming butterflies don't make Gore-or someone else president) but he'd be more distant than Blair was OTL.
 
I'm not fully convinced Hague would ever become leader aside from in largely OTL circumstances. It required two very significant factors in 1997 - the intense wariness towards Clarke and the desire for a 'fresh start' - to elect Hague. In a contest with stronger competitors from the right or in any less desperate circumstances, his appeal could be pretty limited. In 1997, he needed Portillo out, Howard hamstrung by the Derek Lewis issue and the personal backing of Thatcher to win.
 
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If you want an earlier Hague Premiership (Eg in 2001), your best bet would be to have Kinnock win in 1992. The Tories stand a good chance of winning in 1997, lead preferably by someone who won't want to stay on long-term (perhaps Hurd? Haseltine? or perhaps Major stays on after the 1992 defeat if it's narrow enough??). Hague works his way up the Shadow cabinet (and the cabinet) in the years 1992-2001 (just about doable imho) and when whoever's in power steps down in 2001, Hague could be in a good position to take the reigns (I see Portillo as a more obvious Thatcherright successor, but I suppose him self-distructing in some way could be possible).

I believe he was briefly the Welsh Secretary towards the end of the Major government, so a shadow cabinet position in a 1990s Tory Opposition probably wouldn't be out of the question.
 
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