William Hague
William Hague left his decisive run until late in the final furlong, but in the end he won going away. In the final vote he triumphed massively, beating Kenneth Clarke by 92 votes to 70, a margin few pundits had predicted.
His 22-vote majority was far larger than almost all but his most fervent supporters had predicted.
In the second round, Mr Hague had trailed his opponent by 64-62. Despite the last-minute endorsement of former prime minister Baroness Thatcher, he appeared to have been dealt a fatal blow when the defeated John Redwood called on his supporters to vote for Mr Clarke.
This was probably the decisive move in the race, but decisive in exactly the opposite way to which it was intended. Mr Redwood's supporters - drawn from the right of the party and strongly Euro-sceptic - just could not stomach the thought of a Euro-phile left-winger as leader.
In addition, there was a strong reaction to the apparently Machiavelian prospect of two avowed enemies supping from the same cup. The Clarke-Redwood agreement was immediately dubbed the "unholy alliance", or the "instability pact", and some Tories recoiled in dismay into the Hague camp.
The youngest candidate at 36, Mr Hague became a cabinet minister in 1995 at the age of 34 - replacing John Redwood, as Welsh Secretary after Mr Redwood resigned in order to challenge John Major for the Tory leadership. This made Mr Hague the youngest cabinet minister since Harold Wilson was appointed President of the Board of Trade at 31 in 1947. He has long been tipped as a future Tory leader.
Mr Hague is from the centre-right of the party and campaigned as a 'unity candidate'. He says the Tories should not be afraid to re-model their party significantly in the same way that Labour did under Tony Blair.
His bid for the leadership got off to a shaky start after he pulled out of a deal to back Michael Howard in a 'dream ticket' team, in return for the Deputy Prime Ministership if successful. The deal was toasted over champagne but fell flat the next morning as Mr Hague pulled out.
However, Mr Hague overcame the Howard obstacle with a very slick launch at Westminster where he made much of his working-class up-bringing in Yorkshire and his comprehensive-school education.
As the campaign progressed, Mr Hague made a virtue of going round the regions, drumming up support among local party members. One of the main planks of his platform is reform of the party, including the leadership election rules. In the event of winning, he even offered to have his leadership endorsed by party members.
In the run-up to the first ballot he was displaced as the bookies' favourite by Kenneth Clarke - not apparently because he did anything wrong but because of strong support for the ex-chancellor. That was reflected in actual votes, with Mr Clarke edging ahead 49-41 in the first round.
Backers include: Lord Parkinson, John Maples, Alan Duncan, Roger Gale, James Paice, Nigel Evans, Julie Kirkbride, James Clappison, Nick Hawkins, Peter Bottomley, Richard Spring, Michael Ancram, Jonathan Sayeed, Desmond Swayne, Richard Page, Ian Bruce
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