Page "United Kingdom general election, 2001" Paragraph 2

For the Conservatives ' the huge loss they had sustained in 1997 was repeated.

Despite gaining 9 seats the Tories lost 8 behind them to the Liberals Democrats and one even to Labour.

The inevitable result was the speedy resignation of William Hague in the election aftermath.

Some believed that Hague had been unlucky, although most considered him to be a talented orator and an intelligent statesman, he had come up against the charismatic Tony Blair in the pomp of his political career, and it was no surprise that little progress was made in reducing Labour's majority after a relatively smooth parliament.

Staying at what they considered rock-bottom however showed that the Conservatives had failed to improve their negative public image, had remained somewhat disunited over Europe and had not regained the trust that they had lost in the 1990s.