WILLIAM HAGUE disclosed Tory ambitions to cut back the influence of Scottish MPs on laws affecting England during an attack on Gordon Brown and his powerbase yesterday.

Mr Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, barely touched on international issues as he delivered a 20-minute tirade against the Chancellor for being bossy and “stuck in the past”.

The attack in a speech in London was part of the Conservative strategy to portray Mr Brown as generationally out of touch compared with David Cameron, the Tory leader, who is 16 years his junior.

Mr Hague said that Mr Brown had borrowed or imported his ideas on improving national cohesion, such as a call for a British Day and for the British flag to be flown in every garden.

He opened a new line of attack on the Chancellor, the man most likely to lead Labour against the Tories at the next election, for his defence of Scottish MPs’ power at Westminster. In a revival of his own policy as leader of the Conservative Party in the four years to 2001, Mr Hague added: “As Leader of the Opposition during the debates we had on devolution I feel no pleasure in pointing out that Scottish Labour MPs forcing through changes to England’s laws does not make for a more harmonious United Kingdom.

“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.”

Mr Hague’s taunt foreshadows the work on the so-called West Lothian Question being carried out by Kenneth Clarke’s democracy task force, set up by Mr Cameron. He seemed to suggest that it would recommend withdrawing voting rights from MPs in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland over measures in the Commons deemed to affect only England.

Labour pointed out, however, that the number of Scottish MPs was reduced by 13 at the last election to 59 in boundary changes designed to reflect the impact of devolution.

In questions after the speech, Mr Hague was forced to defend Mr Cameron from right-wing critics who are increasingly attacking some of his leader’s policy decisions.

Stuart Wheeler, the Tory donor who set a record for single gifts when he gave £5 million, said that he was disappointed yesterday that Mr Cameron now opposed increased schools selection. Mr Wheeler also dismissed the environmental commission set up by Mr Cameron as “pie in the sky”.

His comments came after reports that an anonymous donor had cancelled a £250,000 gift because of concerns about the leftwards direction the party was taking.

Mr Wheeler insisted that, despite supporting Liam Fox and then David Davis for leader, he now backed Mr Cameron and would continue to provide financial support. “I was disappointed that he rejected selection by ability,” he told BBC Radio 5 Live.

Mr Hague said that one of Mr Cameron’s attractions was that, unlike Mr Brown, he was “free of ideological baggage”.

He added: “David Cameron has a very strong mandate for changing the Conservative Party, an overwhelming mandate from the party members. Inevitably there will be the occasional criticisms. It is not possible to carry out such a process without criticism.

“I would point out to critics that what David is doing is in the finest traditions of the Conservative Party.”

• The UK Independence Party tried to exploit a potential gap left by David Cameron’s march to the centre ground with an attempt yesterday to re-brand itself by embracing a broader range of politics aimed at right-wing voters.

  It will advocate a flat tax system, protectionist trade policies with preferential treatment for Commonwealth countries and a return to grammar schools in addition to its core platform of withdrawal from the European Union and a freeze on net immigration.

  The UKIP’s planned emphasis on grammar schools, plus commitments to abolish university tuition fees, are clearly intended to appeal to traditional Tories after announcements by Mr Cameron dropping his party’s opposition to top-up fees and ruling out a return to selection.

  Nigel Farage, one of the UKIP’s MEPs, said: “We are without any shadow of a doubt parking our tanks on David Cameron’s abandoned lawn. International trade is an area where virtually every single major donor to the Tory party is screaming, ‘We must be able to determine our own policy.’ ”

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