Daily Telegraph – 8 December 1998

My constituent, Mr Owen Smith, asks if those MPs who elected William Hague as leader are "now sure of their wisdom" and suggests that Kenneth Clarke would have been preferable (December 5).

I voted for neither, because Ken favoured EMU and William had yet to show the strength of his opposition to it. He has now done so and has proved a determined defender of our constitutional safeguards. Now is the time to give him the backing he has earned as our leader.

Dr JULIAN LEWIS MP
Cadnam, Hampshire