William Hague: listening

Hague Embarks on Regional Tour

The tour kicked off in Cornwall, where he braved a steep water slide at Flambards theme park near Helston on the Lizard.

He crammed into a craft with the deputy chief of staff Seb Coe and the newly-appointed Cornwall party spokesman David Harris, and all three got a soaking at the foot of the drop.

As he toured the theme park in the pouring rain, Mr Hague was wearing an anorak, open neck shirt and casual trousers, together with a personalised baseball cap with the words "Hague" on the front and "A fresh future" on the back.

He dismissed the notion that the future looked bleak for his party in Cornwall.

"I think that makes it a very good place to start," he said. "I'm going to do a great deal of that during the summer recess, and Cornwall is an excellent place to start."

The Conservatives lost their three Parliamentary seats in the county at the last General Election and Cornwall is now represented in the Commons by four Liberal Democrats and a Labour MP.

But Mr Hague said the tourism, fishing and farming industries were already disillusioned with the Labour government.

He is also visiting the RNLI centre at Falmouth and at an air-sea rescue demonstration from a lifeboat, before ending the day watching a surf life saving exhibition at Portreath on the north coast.

The Cornwall visit is the first of a series of tours which will take Mr Hague all over the country. On Tuesday he is visiting a fisheries protection vessel in Penzance.