William Hague interviewed Dinah Rose

One of the most recognisable politicians of the last 40 years Lord William Hague talks about his political life and his writing and offers some perspectives on the current turbulent Westminster scene.

Hague seemed destined for a political life when he first rose to prominence as a 16-year-old schoolboy giving a speech at the 1977 Conservative Party annual conference. That proved the case as he became an MP 12 years later, earning a place in a John Major cabinet by 1995 and being elected as leader of the party at the age of 36. He was the youngest leader of a major UK political party in 200 years. He returned to the backbenches after the 2001 election defeat and later served as foreign secretary and leader of the house under David Cameron, whose election to the leadership he had supported.

Hague has been at the centre of many of the key political moments of the last two decades. He led negotiations with the Liberal Democrats over the 2010 coalition government and dealt with crises in the Middle East and Europe during his time as foreign secretary. After standing down from the Commons in 2015, he was awarded a life peerage.

Hague is author of two critically acclaimed political biographies, William Pitt the Younger: A Biography, and William Wilberforce: The Life of the Great Anti-Slave Trade Campaigner. He read philosophy, politics and economics at Magdalen College, Oxford. Here he talks to the President of Magdalen College, Dinah Rose KC.