I'll be knocking around in politics for a long time, says Hague

Yorkshire Post: “We’ve been working for years to come into government. I had a sentence in my speech on Sunday that said now we have these responsibilities each one of us must see them through and I meant that very much – I meant that about myself as well as about everybody else.

“So that is the spirit in which we’re approaching it. I will be knocking around in politics for quite a long time.”

Mr Hague insisted the party was emerging from this week’s conference in good shape, describing the atmosphere as “workmanlike” rather than “champagne and dancing”.

In light of concerns from many MPs over the plan to cut child benefit for higher rate taxpayers, Mr Hague braced the party for “difficult arguments over many of the decisions to be taken over the coming months, starting with the Comprehensive Spending Review in less than two weeks.

“When you suggest a change, a reduction in some long-standing piece of Government spending it’s not surprising there’s a reaction against that,” he said. “But our job as a Government is to battle through that, to explain why we’ve got to do it and why we’re choosing to do it in that way.

“There is no panic over this because we will carry it through, we will put in place the policy the Chancellor announced on Monday. We have in any case in the Coalition Agreement proposals about transferable tax allowances and those still stand so there’s no panic in any direction.

“We want people to see Government policies as a whole. When we announce things we will carry them through. We know there will be a bit of track along the way but people wouldn’t thank us in the end for not carrying through the tough but fair choices we’re starting to set out.”

Mr Hague also revealed he and David Cameron have been pressing foreign governments to invest in the Hawk and Typhoon plans manufactured by BAE, which last month announced plans to cut 212 jobs at its plant in Brough, near Hull.