Brown stuck in past, says Hague

Mr Hague said Mr Brown had too much 'ideological baggage'

Chancellor Gordon Brown is too "stuck in the past" to become an effective prime minister, shadow foreign secretary William Hague has said.

Mr Brown's stewardship of the economy was designed to "tell us how to live", he said in a speech to the Policy Exchange think tank.

Mr Hague said the chancellor was trying to "duck" questions on education, the NHS reforms and changes to policing.

Labour was also influenced by "anti-British radicalism", he added.

'Sudden love of flagpoles'

Mr Hague, standing in as Conservative leader while David Cameron is on paternity leave, mocked Mr Brown's recent speech on developing a sense of national identity.

He said: "Vague talk of Britishness, and a sudden love of flagpoles, is no substitute for renewing faith in Britain's institutions."

Mr Hague said future "challenges" for the government included increased economic competition, radical Islamic groups seeking to "subvert democracy" and climate change.

These required a prime minister "free of ideological baggage from the past, uncompromised by failure in government, sufficiently at ease with Britain that he doesn't need constantly to redefine what Britishness means".

Mr Hague reiterated Conservative criticism that Mr Brown had become the "roadblock to reform" and should not replace Tony Blair as prime minister.

He suggested that the recent "desire to emphasise Britishness" was the chancellor's "way of dealing with the West Lothian question".

This is the debate over whether Scottish MPs - such as Mr Brown - should be able to vote in the Commons on issues which affect England only.

Mr Hague said: "Anyone who thinks that we can carry on legislating for England in exactly the same way as we did before devolution is clearly living in the past.

"When even senior Labour backbenchers have begun to recognise this, so should Gordon."