A NEW Conservative government could still hold a referendum on Europe, even if the Lisbon treaty had already been fully ratified, should the party win power.

William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, is considering a special national ballot to help to give him the authority to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with Europe.

In a wide-ranging interview with The Sunday Times, Hague said: “The integration of Europe will have gone too far. We won’t let matters rest.”

A referendum would be popular with the Tories’ Eurosceptic MPs and grassroots activists who believe that the European Union reform treaty undermines Britain’s national sovereignty. But it would be resisted by some of David Cameron’s strategists, who would fear that a prolonged debate on the minutiae of EU procedures would be a turn-off to voters.

Hague insisted that Europe remained a crucial issue. “If [the treaty] is ratified by all 27 nations and comes into force without a referendum in Britain, then it will lack democratic legitimacy,” he said.

“If the Lisbon treaty is unratified and on the table at the point we take office then, of course, we would hold a referendum.” He went on to say that should the Tories inherit the treaty already ratified, they could still hold a referendum.

“We haven’t made the decision,” he said. “I certainly haven’t ruled that out.”

The wording has also yet to be decided, but the aim would be to give the new government a mandate to go to Brussels demanding a looser relationship with the EU.

The ratification of the Lisbon treaty, which ends Britain’s powers of veto in dozens of policy areas, is stalled following the no vote in Ireland.

However, once Gordon Brown has called a general election, by or before mid-2010, the Irish are likely to have voted again in a fresh ballot and the controversial treaty could be back on track.

Speaking on the eve of the Conservative conference in Birmingham, Hague also discussed the party’s preparations for power, Brown’s supposed “psychological flaws” and offered some sage advice to David Miliband, the foreign secretary and favourite to succeed Brown as Labour leader.

The 47-year-old MP for Richmond, who led the Tories from 1997 to 2001, insisted that the youthful Tory front bench team was ready to take power, challenging Brown’s claim that the financial crisis meant this was no time for a “novice”.

“None of us wants to be complacent but this conference is about illustrating that the alternative is ready,” said Hague.

He strongly defended George Osborne, the shadow chancellor, who has been accused of inexperience. “He is 37, so he is 13 years older than my hero William Pitt when he became prime minister and chancellor. Age need not be a bar to these things.”

He warned voters not to expect early tax cuts from a Tory government: “If and when we win the next election we will be left with one of the

most serious, most adverse budgetary situations that any government has ever left to its successor. Labour has almost a scorched earth policy.”

Since resigning as party leader Hague has made several million pounds from corporate directorships, after-dinner speaking and biographies of Pitt and William Wilberforce, the anti-slavery campaigner.

“My approach has been to get to the point where I could take or leave politics,” he said.

“It is very 18th century. I don’t see myself as a career politician any more. When I don’t think I am being any use any more, I will go off and write that next book.

“I would have preferred to live in the late 18th century but I am doing my best in the 21st century.”

Hague agreed with the famous criticism of Brown, ascribed to Tony Blair’s spokesman, Alastair Campbell, that he suffered “psychological flaws”. “He hasn’t the character of a team leader,” he said.

“I can say with authority that it is quite different being leader compared to any other position. It is not just one step up; it is an order of magnitude different.

“It requires extraordinary people skills, managing colleagues and getting the best out of people. There is no evidence of that happening in the government in terms of how Downing Street is run. It seems to be dysfunctional with staff coming and going and arguing with each other.”

He admitted there was a similarity between Miliband and himself in the way they both suffered a tendency towards visual gaffes.

The Tory faced ridicule as party leader when he was pictured on a theme park ride wearing a “Hague” branded baseball cap. The foreign secretary was lampooned last week at the Labour conference for a bizarre photograph of him grinning while holding a banana.

Hague said: “Miliband has a very expressive, over-expressive face. He does show what he is thinking. It is a perfectly natural thing, but in a foreign secretary or leadership candidate it is not so wise. I would recommend more inscrutability.”

Hague is married to Ffion, a headhunter and author. They met when he was the Welsh secretary in the last Tory government; the couple remain childless. Nevertheless, he defended Cameron against the charge made by Brown in his conference speech that he exploited his children for political ends.

“I remember Tony Blair giving a press conference holding a coffee mug with the kids’ photos on it. That did seem a bit much,” he said.

“David Cameron believes people want to know about him and need to know about him and so openness is the best politics.”

However, he admitted ruefully that modern voters wanted party leaders to be family men. “It doesn’t trouble me,” he added. “I am certainly never going to be party leader again.”

Pressed on whether his lack of ambition was sincere, he said: “I know they say ‘never say never’ in politics, but actually I do say never.”

Tories ' EU tangle

- 1946 — Sir Winston Churchill calls for a “United States of Europe”, without Britain

- 1973 — Edward Heath leads Britain into the European Economic Community

- 1988 — Margaret Thatcher delivers Bruges speech, zenith of her Eurosceptic leadership, warning of “a European superstate exercising a new dominance from Brussels”

- 1992 — John Major signs Maastricht treaty, sparking Eurosceptic rebellion. UK crashes out of European exchange rate mechanism.

- 1993 — Major labels Eurosceptic cabinet members “bastards”

- 1997 — Splits over Europe contribute to Tory election disaster

- 2007 — David Cameron establishes party ceasefire over EU

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