Politics: Hague stands firm behind Euro-sceptic campaign

William Hague has taken on the mantle of Jack the giant-killer in his battle against the single currency. Anthony Bevins, Political Editor, inspects the big battalions lined up against him.

The Conservative leader last night defied his pro-European critics and dug in for the long campaign to sell his Euro-sceptic message.

But Mr Hague was yesterday met by a heavyweight barrage of opposition; from the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Lib-Lab Cabinet committee, and leading Conservatives, who warned that he could not defy history and renounce Britain's place at the heart of Europe.

In addition to Michael Heseltine and Lord Howe, two former deputy prime ministers, and Kenneth Clarke, the former Chancellor, Sir Edward Heath, the former Prime Minister, is expected to attack Mr Hague's defiant stand this weekend.

But Gordon Brown last night put the view of the cross-party, anti-Hague consensus when he said: "Anti-Europeanism in the Conservative Party, rather than concern for the constitution, is now precluding a more sensible position. Dogma is triumphing over the national interest..."

Delivering a Spectator/Allied Dunbar lecture in London, he said: "I believe the right-wing view - that to be pro-British you have to be anti-European - is not only wrong but increasingly irrelevant to the debate about how best we pursue Britain's economic interest. "And it is increasingly out of touch with the pro-European mainstream national consensus about the single currency we are building."

As Conservative Mainstream is an umbrella group for the old guard Tory moderates - with a conference to be addressed by Mr Clarke tomorrow - Mr Brown's repeated use of the word was not seen as coincidence last night.

It was also viewed as part of the strategy to tackle Mr Hague head-on that the Lib-Lab Cabinet committee yesterday discussed the agenda for Britain's six-month presidency of the EU, which starts in January.

After the meeting,at which Tony Blair and Paddy Ashdown were joined by senior colleagues from both parties, it was said that the presidency would be exploited to campaign for a less Euro-sceptic position in the country at large.

But the whole basis of Mr Hague's leadership strategy is built on the assessment that his opponents are fighting a losing battle, and that he is going with the grain of long-term public opinion in his fight to "save the pound".

His Tory opponents argue that Mr Hague is backing a certain loser, and that they will be there to pick up the pieces when the campaign ends, inevitably, in tears. However, some of them are coming round to the view that if the leader purges pro-European candidates from the Tory list for the European parliamentary elections in 1999, and the result is a disaster for the party, then a challenge to his leadership might become possible before the next general election.