Stand firm and tell the truth, Hague tells Tory activists

In his traditional rallying speech on the opening day of the party conference, Mr Hague praised Nick Clegg’s contribution to the coalition – and even relived his own ill-fated leadership of the Tories to warn Labour will remain “weak and wandering”.

The Richmond MP, always a conference favourite, insisted the party had proved critics wrong by winning an extra 24 seats in the north at the last election and warned activists the Government faced “the most difficult, challenging and urgent task of our lives” to see the country goes through tough times.

“The solution to excessive borrowing and debt cannot be more borrowing and debt, and now we have a Government that knows it,” he said.

“We have a Prime Minister who provides strong leadership and a Chancellor who provides the honest truth. We have a coalition that came together in the national interest rather than ministers who clung on in their party interest.

“And I say to those who are protesting outside here today: the money you were promised by the last Labour Government never existed, it was never there, and we have been left with the task of telling you the truth. A government betrays instead of serving its people if it allows them to live on a delusion and that we will not do.

“And it is wrong, unfair and irresponsible to leave a massive debt for the next generation to deal with instead of facing up to it now.

“Our resolve to deal with this is and will remain unwavering.”