'Disillusion' with Labour spurs extra Tory effort in Yorkshire

In an interview with the Yorkshire Post he said the party is still optimistic of winning a string of the crucial Tory-Labour marginals which are crucial to getting David Cameron into Downing Street next week despite polls pointing to a hung parliament.

Shadow Foreign Secretary Mr Hague, whose Richmond constituency is a safe Tory seat, also claimed the Tory frontbench are better prepared for to govern than any recent opposition as he promised a positive Tory agenda for the final days of the campaign.

And he revealed he has warned Foreign Office mandarins there will be no weekend off if the Tories win and he is installed as Foreign Secretary on May 7.

Although the surge in support for Nick Clegg following the Prime Ministerial debates has hit Tory chances of taking Liberal Democrat seats Harrogate and Knaresborough and York Outer, internal party polling suggests support is holding up particularly well in West Yorkshire, a claim brushed off by one Labour veteran who insisted it was shocking "how few people want the Tories".

Asked about the campaign in the region, Mr Hague said: "It's on track but moving into a higher gear. It's built up more steam.

"We've actually become a little more ambitious in the last few weeks about what we could gain in Yorkshire based on the feedback we've been receiving, deep disillusionment with the Labour party in this region and the strong performance by many of our candidates locally."

Mr Hague said Gordon Brown's branding of a pensioner who quizzed him about immigration on Wednesday as a "bigot" was "not a good day for Labour" and said it had exposed how remote the Prime Minister was from ordinary people.

But he said the Tories were adamant to use the final days of the campaign to get across their own vision of a Big Society, where the state plays a smaller role and individuals have more power and responsibility.

"He's got his own difficulties," said Mr Hague. "Over the next week we will be reinforcing the positive message of what the Conservatives will do."

The former Tory leader admitted the leadership debates had given Liberal Democrat leader Clegg a shot in the arm but insisted he had no regrets that the Tories had agreed to a format which put all three party leaders on level footing.

"There's no doubt in polling terms it did provide a bit of a boost to the Liberal Democrats after the first debate, but it also brought them under greater scrutiny," he said.

Mr Hague has spent much of the campaign touring target seats in the north which the Tories must win to take power. In West Yorkshire a string of constituencies could hold the keys to power from Calder Valley and Colne Valley – where only a small swing is required – to traditional Labour seats like Dewsbury and Wakefield.

While Mr Hague stresses the party is taking nothing for granted, he insists senior figures are ready to serve in government if they win a majority next Thursday.

"One of the great things about David Cameron is he believes in people really getting on top of their brief over a long period of time," he said.

"Many of us have had more than four years to get into our area of responsibility and that means we're ready – we're readier than any opposition has been in a very long time to move into becoming Ministers."

And in a declaration that he is ready to become one of the most powerful figures in a Cameron government, he added: "I've told the Foreign Office if there's a clear Conservative win, it will be a working weekend in the Foreign Office. There will be no Saturday or Sunday for Foreign Office officials."

However, former MP Fabian Hamilton, seeking re-election for Labour in Leeds North East where the Tories need to overcome a majority of nearly 7,000, said: "What has shocked me in this election is how few people want the Tories. I'm not getting anything like the kind of surge the Tories need to win this seat."