On 4 March 2001, the Conservative leader, William Hague, delivered a controversial speech warning that continued integration with the European Union would turn Britain into a “foreign land”. The speech reflected Hague’s “Save the Pound” campaign, a strategy designed to make opposition to joining the Euro a central issue of the 2001 election.

The address symbolised Hague’s rejection of the mantle of “modernisation”, presaging a general election campaign organised around traditional Tory tropes.

Hague opened with a reference to the “enduring values that have run through two centuries of Tory history.”

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In the speech’s most memorable and controversial passage, Hague ​​invited his audience to imagine the consequences of another Labour victory, declaring: “Let me take you on a journey to a foreign land – to Britain after a second term of Tony Blair.”

The Conservative leader, addressing his party’s spring forum in Harrogate, proceeded to paint a quasi-apocalyptic vision of a Blairite Britain. Hague prophesied “the Royal Mint melting down pound coins as the euro notes start to circulate. Our currency gone forever. The chancellor returning from Brussels carrying instructions to raise taxes still further.”

The Tory leader told voters that the coming election campaign would be the “last chance to vote for a Britain that still controls its own destiny.”

Hague argued that Conservatives were unfairly labelled “extreme” for raising issues such as Europe, taxation, crime and asylum.

He added: “But we trust the people. They are not bigoted or ungenerous… And they can tell that something is going badly wrong when desperate people hide in the undercarriage of high speed trains to get through the Channel Tunnel.”

Central to the address was a warning that Blair’s government would take Britain into the euro without genuine public control over the process. Hague argued that within two years of winning an election, “Tony Blair would force this country into the euro.”

The Conservative leader told conference delegates: “It’s true that he’s had to promise us a referendum. But who will set the terms of that referendum? Tony Blair. Who will decide when to hold it? Tony Blair. Who will draft the question? Tony Blair.”

In his peroration, Hague repeated the phrase “we will give you back your country” a full eight times. The phrase “common sense” featured across the speech 14 times.

Hague concluded: “Elect a Conservative government and we will give you back your country.”

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The Labour government condemned the speech as desperate and extreme.

Jack Straw, the home secretary, focused on Hague’s comments surrounding asylum seekers.

Straw stated: “It is difficult to know whether this is based on abject opportunism or deep-seated personal prejudice, which is worse… Locking up all asylum seekers while their claims are processed is inhuman and impractical and would cost billions and take years. What would he do meanwhile?”

Charles Kennedy, the Liberal Democrat leader, said Hague’s speech was “not common sense but complete nonsense”.

Shaun Woodward, a former Conservative MP who had defected to Labour, said the speech had appealed to the “worst prejudices and instincts” of some voters.

More damagingly for Hague, the remarks were publicly criticised by senior pro-European figures within his own party, including the former deputy prime minister, Michael Heseltine. Responding to Hague’s speech, Heseltine said: “Does anyone seriously think that France is a ‘foreign’ country? Or that Germany is a ‘foreign’ country?”

He added: “These are great giant nation states fighting for their self-interest and they believe their self-interest is better sought and protected and advanced in concert with their neighbours than apart from them.”

Heseltine spoke of a “dilemma” over whether to vote Conservative at the next general election.

Sir Edward Heath, the former Conservative prime minister, warned that his party was in “grave danger” of making similar mistakes to those which convulsed the Labour Party after its 1979 election defeat.

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The backlash forced the Conservative leadership onto the defensive.

Hague insisted his words were not anti-foreigner but a warning about the loss of national sovereignty. “I will never apologise for articulating the common-sense instincts of the mainstream majority”, the Tory leader insisted.

The Telegraph suggested that Hague was in “retreat” over his rhetoric.

The Conservative Party went on to suffer a second successive landslide defeat at the 2001 general election. Labour was returned to power with a 167-seat majority.

Hague resigned.

In the longer term, however, the “foreign land” speech has been seen as an early articulation of the eurosceptic sentiment that would eventually find expression in the 2016 Brexit referendum.

Daniel Hannan, a Conservative MEP and early champion of the Brexit cause, is reported to have been instrumental in shaping the “foreign land” speech.