It was announced yesterday that the former Conservative Party leader, 63, had been elected. Earlier this month he warned former Labour spinner Lord Mandelson could not be both the UK’s next ambassador to the US and chancellor, saying that taking on both roles would be “incompatible”.
Lord Mandelson, widely seen as the leading candidate to become Britain’s new ambassador in Washington, had said he would be capable of holding both positions because the role of Oxford chancellor was merely a “ceremonial figurehead”.
But Lord Hague hit back, telling The Independent’s editor-inchief Geordie Greig that the job could not be done while living on the other side of the Atlantic. “It is important to be accessible and to be there [in Oxford],” he stressed.
“You need to be active and energetic. I am diplomatically saying it is not compatible with full-time employment in another country. Being a ‘ceremonial figurehead’ was only one part of the job. It has changed in the last 20 years. Going to ceremonies and being a figurehead ... also requires physical presence in the country and in the universities.
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