Tories gamble on their youngest leader since Pitt

William Hague last night scored a surprise, runaway victory in the final ballot for the Conservative leadership, becoming the youngest leader of the party for more than two centuries.

Formally taking the leadership from John Major at a full party meeting in Conservative Central Office, Mr Hague appealed for an end to "bellyaching" and promised to put his leadership to a special conference of party members in a secret ballot.

"They can back me or sack me," he said, "because without the endorsement of members in the constituencies we will not be able to embark on a challenge so great as the one that faces us."

The result of the final round of the leadership ballot, announced to MPs in a Commons committee room little more than an hour earlier, gave Mr Hague 92 votes to Kenneth Clarke's 70, with two abstentions.

The delight of some MPs was marred for others by the snap announcement of Mr Clarke, the former chancellor of the exchequer, that he would not serve in Mr Hague's Shadow Cabinet and would be returning to the back benches for the first time in 26 years.

The bitterness of his defeat was underlined by the fact that Mr Clarke had led in every other ballot of MPs - and, more significantly, of the party's grassroots activists. He led yesterday's test of constituency and party opinion by three to two for Mr Hague, yet that ballot was patently spurned by the party's 164 MPs.

A statement from the office of John Redwood, whose "marriage from hell" brought Mr Clarke a mere six additional votes, said there would be no immediate statement from him. Francis Maude, one of the Hague campaigners, said he suspected some MPs had woken up yesterday to realise that such deals were not the way to elect a leader. "This is the first time in many years," he said, "when, faced with a choice between something stupid and wrong, and something sensible and right, the Conservative Party has made the correct decision."

The result was also welcomed by Paddy Ashdown, who invited disaffected Tories to "find a welcome home with the Liberal Demo- crats".

In the Commons Chamber, Labour MPs greeted the news by cheering and waving their papers in the traditional parliamentary gesture of delight.

However, the Opposition welcome did not diminish the equally genuine pleasure of Mr Hague's supporters. When the result was announced by Sir Archie Hamilton, chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee, one of Mr Hague's party fans shrieked with delight in the corridor outside committee room 10, shouting: "Yes, yes, yes. God is a Conservative after all."

Mr Hague, 36, and a man who was outside the Cabinet just two years ago, is the youngest Conservative leader since Pitt the Younger, 24, in 1783.

He told the Central Office meeting: "Be prepared for some changes in this party because the way we conduct ourselves is going to change. The days of disunity, of factions and wings, and groups within groups, and parties within parties, must now come to an end.

"If anyone doubts I mean it, I say this to them - just try me. I won't always be as friendly as I look. If I have to, I will put some noses out of joint."

Earlier, he said he would be asking Mr Clarke to serve under him, but the former chancellor responded shortly afterwards: "I've explained to William that long before the campaign started, immediately after the general election, I had decided that I wouldn't serve in the Shadow Cabinet if I did not become the leader.

"This has absolutely nothing to do with the events of this leadership campaign, which we have all set behind us and which was a perfectly reasonable campaign."

The party will also lose the services, on the front bench, of Michael Heseltine, another veteran and the former Deputy Prime Minister, who had campaigned hard for a Clarke win.

Mr Hague is expected to award his two key backers - Peter Lilley and Michael Howard - with the top jobs in his Shadow Cabinet, with Mr Lilley taking the shadow Chancellor's post and Mr Howard shadow Foreign Secretary.

Gillian Shephard, who had backed Mr Lilley in the first round, before switching to Mr Hague, will also get the reward of a top job. There was speculation she will become shadow Home Secretary. Brian Mawhinney, the party Chairman, has offered to continue under the new leader.

There was dismay among the Clarke supporters, but Hague supporters wanted revenge against Mr Redwood. "Redwood is a liability; he has been shown he cannot deliver his support and he is not attractive to people in the country," said one Tory MP.

Baroness Thatcher appeared to have helped in that: devoting a good deal of effort to twisting the arms of Redwood supporters to switch to Mr Hague. She said last night: "It's been a good day."