William Hague is 'a gimmick', Margaret Thatcher told Tories
MARGARET Thatcher said William Hague could be “an embarrassment to the Government” when he applied to become a Tory aide at the age of 21.
The now Foreign Secretary had caught the eye of senior Conservatives with a barnstorming party conference speech in 1977, when he was only 16. Five years later he applied for a top job at the Treasury, as a special adviser.
Prime Minister Mrs Thatcher, who died in April, dismissed him as “a gimmick” and warned he could spark resentment among more experienced colleagues. Asked about the rebuff, detailed in the National Archives, an aide to Mr Hague said: “The Foreign Secretary thinks Margaret Thatcher was, as usual, right.”