William Hague - Early Life

Early Life

Hague was born in Rotherham in Yorkshire. He initially boarded at Ripon Grammar School and then attended Wath-upon-Dearne Comprehensive, a state secondary school near Rotherham, then known as Wath Grammar School. Hague's father Nigel and mother ran a soft drinks manufacturing business for which he used to work during school holidays.

He first made the national news at the age of 16 by speaking at the Conservative Party's 1977 national conference. In his speech he told the attenders, "Half of you won't be here in 30 or 40 years' time", but that others would have to live with consequences of a Labour government if it stayed in power.

Hague studied PPE at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with First-Class Honours. He was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA), but was also "convicted of electoral malpractice" in the process. OUCA's official historian David Blair notes that Hague was actually elected on a platform pledging to clean up OUCA, but that this was "tarnished by accusations that he misused his position as Returning Officer to help the Magdalen candidate for the Presidency, Peter Halley. Hague was playing the classic game of using his powers as President to keep his faction in power, and Halley was duly elected...There were accusations of blatant ballot box stuffing."

He was then President of the Oxford Union, a noted route to political office. Following university, Hague went on to study for a Master of Business Administration degree at INSEAD. He then worked as a management consultant at McKinsey & Company, where Archie Norman was his mentor.