Mr William Hague will this morning launch "The Common Sense Revolution" - a Tory blueprint for government - at the start of a crucial conference week in which he must establish himself and his party as serious contenders for power.
But amid continuing speculation that the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, might call a snap election late next year, Mr Hague arrived in Blackpool to a background cho rus of bitter recriminations between Mr John Major and Mr Norman Lamont over the events of "Black Wednesday" - and to face press claims that Baroness Thatcher has privately mocked him as "wee Willie" and believes he has "gone soft" on Europe.
Lady Thatcher later dismissed as "malicious rubbish" a Sunday Times report that she had criticised Mr Hague at a private dinner during the summer for failing to take a firmer line on Europe, the slowness of his defence of Gen Pinochet against the current extradition proceedings, and his relaxed response to the party's low poll ratings.
In a combative pre-conference interview for the BBC's On The Record programme, Mr Hague dismissed the reported rift with the former prime minister. "I think Lady Thatcher will be saying exactly what she thinks over the next couple of days and it doesn't bear any relation to what people might read in the newspapers," he said.
Of the memoirs battle between Mr Major and his former chancellor over the events leading to Britain's enforced exit from the ERM in 1992, Mr Hague said: "It's all about the past. I suppose we should read history, but it's not about today."
Asked about his own low standing in the polls, and whether he would consider standing aside if persuaded someone else would fare better, Mr Hague said he was "very happy to take responsibility for our party where it is after the last two years". Since the election defeat, he said, the party had been completely reorganised and democratised, had some 2,000 more elected representatives at local level, and in June's Euro-poll had won its first state-wide election contest in seven years.
However, Mr Hague's difficulty in breaking with his party's past was starkly underlined when a significant section of his BBC interview was devoted to Lord Archer's selection as Tory candidate for London's mayoral contest.
Asked if he considered Lord Archer "a man of integrity", Mr Hague replied: "Yes I do."
Pressed as to whether Lord Archer should not seek to answer continuing questions about his character by suing for libel, Mr Hague retorted: "I'm not his legal adviser."
Mr Hague said his duty had been to ensure the "most open and fair" process involving the party's London membership in selecting a candidate with the creativity and passion necessary for the job. "We've got one, and I'm going to stick up for him," he declared.
The former chancellor, Mr Kenneth Clarke, is expected to use a speech on the conference fringe to warn that he and fellow pro-Europeans have not conceded the battle over Europe or the single currency. Mr Hague made light how ever of the continuing challenge from Mr Clarke and the former deputy prime minister, Mr Michael Heseltine.
Mr Hague said the party's task now was "to speak with the same clarity and conviction about a whole range of issues as we have spoken about Europe".
However, the Tory leader faces an uphill task persuading voters that his party, barely two years out of office, is best equipped for health and education reform - while confronted with a prime minister who seems able to define New Labour simultaneously as centre-left and centre-right, and who confidently counts increased public spending and tax-cuts in his pre-election armoury.
PA adds: Mr Hague received a major boost this morning with a ringing endorsement from Baroness Thatcher. In an article for the Daily Telegraph, she said Mr Hague was doing "superbly" as a leader of the opposition, hailing him as one of the best performers in that role "our party or any party has had".