William Hague is now one of the most pro-European Conservative member of the Cabinet. The man once reviled by the bien-pensant for his views on this subject is now regarded by the Liberal Democrats as a brake on his more sceptical colleagues and praised in Brussels for his pragmatism. He told his party’s conference that he wants Britain’s membership of the European Union to be about more than just the single market and to extend to ‘co-operation on climate change and other great issues facing us’.
In today’s Conservative party, this is unusual. When I asked various ministers in Birmingham if they agreed with it, nearly all said emphatically not. Even allowing for the fact that Conservative ministers are never more Eurosceptic than when they are at conference and have had a glass of wine or two, their obstinacy was still striking.
Friends of the Foreign Secretary maintain that he has not changed his views on the European Union since he was leader.
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