William Hague: Starmer has been humiliated on the world stage
The Daily T
The Telegraph
4.1 • 705 Ratings
🗓️ 13 March 2026
⏱️ 52 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In one of his most candid interviews to date, William Hague admits to the Daily T that his stint at leader was “the least successful period of my career”.
The former Conservative leader and foreign secretary tells Camilla and Tim he was too young to command the role. Hague also reveals how it felt going head to head with Tony Blair every week and opens up about the intrusion into his private life while in the public eye.
Plus, he says Keir Starmer’s “flatfooted” response to the Iran war has brought on a “rocky” period in the special relationship but admits he is “haunted” by Iraq – a military intervention he supported at the time.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Telegraph. |
| 0:05.0 | In one of his most candid interviews to date, we speak to Lord Hague about the horrors of running the Conservative Party at the height of Blairism, the press intrusion, the lurid headlines, and what he makes |
| 0:22.8 | of Kemi Bidnock and Nigel Farage. |
| 0:25.1 | He tells us he is wary of war in Iran because of Iraq, but fears that the special relationship |
| 0:30.5 | has been damaged by Kier Stalmers dithering. |
| 0:33.4 | Welcome to The Daily Tea with me, Camilla Tomini, and me Tim Stanley. |
| 0:47.3 | Music Welcome to The Daily Tea with me, Camilla Tominy and me Tim Stanley. Lord Hague, William Hague, joins us in the Daily Tea studio for the second time, I believe you have been in here before. |
| 0:53.6 | How do we describe you? |
| 0:54.6 | Once a very young conservative who presented himself to the masses at the Tory Party conference, |
| 0:59.2 | age 16, went on to become party leader, was foreign secretary, now Chancellor of Oxford University. |
| 1:08.0 | So much to discuss with you. Should we start on foreign affairs, as that is the headline-grabbing story of the moment? |
| 1:14.6 | Yes, of course. |
| 1:15.6 | And shall we start by asking you what you think of the future of the special relationship |
| 1:21.9 | in light of Trump's really quite stunning criticism of our own Prime Minister, describing him as weak, not Churchill. |
| 1:30.6 | Che Gosteil is woke. He's disappointed. He didn't let them use the air bases soon enough. |
| 1:37.1 | And by the way, this war is already won. We are talking earlier in the week. Everything could |
| 1:41.2 | change by the time this podcast goes out. But Lord Hague, your view. |
| 1:45.1 | I think it will be rocky the next few months, a special relationship. |
| 1:49.2 | Now, in historical context, there'd be many previous rocky periods and disagreements, of course. |
| 1:53.8 | The UK never got involved in the Vietnam War, despite Linda President Lyndon Johnson begging Harold Wilson to do so. |
| 2:01.5 | Even Margaret Fatcher fell out furiously with Ronald Reagan over invading Grenada. |
| 2:06.2 | And of course there was the Suez crisis. |
... |
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