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He also criticised the Labour government’s attempts at news management which, he said, had overdone the attempt to control and bully journalists.

Mr Hague pointed to the party’s new campaigning approach to the next general election.

“We are not going to stay in London waiting for the day the Prime Minister decides to call the election. Instead we are going to take the election campaign to him.”

He stressed the party’s attention to one-nation values such as the health service and education, insisting it would be “no one-week wonder”.

And the Tory leader reiterated his challenge to Prime Minister Tony Blair to a live television debate during the election campaign.

Click here to read Mr Hague’s speech in full.