Hague turns 40

William Hague is 40.

Conservative leader William Hague is celebrating his 40th birthday, for the second time.

Mr Hague held a party for family and friends last month so he would not be distracted in the week an election was predicted to be called.

It will be exciting having dinner on our own, usually it's with 500 people

William Hague

Now he is expected to mark his 40th alone with wife Ffion, on standby in case Prime Minister Tony Blair declares a date for the general election.

Before the earlier celebration, the Tory leader revealed he would opt for a quiet evening, enjoying the novelty of privacy.

He said: "Ffion and I will go out to supper.

"It will be a notch up from a sandwich, maybe a local pub.

"It will be exciting having dinner on our own, usually it's with 500 people.

Mr Hague and his wife Ffion will be celebrating his birthday privately.

At Mr Hague's early birthday bash at a North Yorkshire hotel last month party activists presented him with a broomstick - "to brush Labour away".

If victorious at the forthcoming election, Mr Hague - who was 36 when he became leader of the opposition - would become the youngest prime minister since Pitt the Younger in 1783.

Mr Blair was 43 when he became prime minister in May 1997.

The Tory leader first came to prominence as a 16 year old when he made a rousing Thatcherite speech to a Conservative Party conference.

But Mr Hague is facing a tough challenge.

Last Wednesday's ICM/Guardian opinion poll found the Conservatives at 35% and Labour at 44%.

The Mirror marks Mr Hague's 40th by reflecting "on his greatest failures - one for every year of his life".