Could the Tories really go back to the last leader but two?

The big money in the Tory leadership contest has been piling on the last leader to be beaten by Tony Blair, William Hague.

At one stage William Hill’s reported that it had taken £85,000 worth of bets on the former leader in just an hour and all the bookmakers have tightened their prices. The best you can get from a conventional bookmaker is 7/2.

Hague, who is now 44, took over the leadership in 1997 after the first Blair landslide. He stepped down immediatly after the 2001 General Election. He was always reckoned to have been able to get the better of Tony Blair in the Commons but did not carry enough credibility with the general public.

Mike Smithson