Tories would avoid 'instant confrontation' with EU, says William Hague

Shadow foreign secretary says a Conservative government would not immediately enter into negotiations about repatriating powers from EU to London

A Conservative government would shy away from an "instant confrontation" with the European Union, William Hague said today.

The shadow foreign secretary told the Financial Times that the Conservatives would be "highly active and activist in European affairs from day one" if they were to win the election.

The Tories are committed to repatriating various powers from the EU to London and at some point this is likely to lead to a row with other EU states, who are opposed to a treaty renegotiation.

But Hague told the FT that the Tories had taken a "strategic decision" to postpone these difficult negotiations.

"We have enough on our hands without an instant confrontation with the EU," Hague said.

"It will not be our approach to go and bang on the table and say immediately we demand A, B, C."

Hague made his comments ahead of a speech on foreign policy that he will deliver to the Royal United Services Institute in London today.

He will claim that Britain's standing in the world is being damaged by its "diminishing" economic status under Labour and that Gordon Brown's tenure in government has seen the country's influence overseas decline in line with its relative economic clout.

Keeping up the Conservatives' attack on the prime minister's strategy on reducing the deficit, Hague will say that early action is vital to the UK's reputation abroad.

Brown's premiership has done "serious damage" to Britain's attractiveness to enterprise, wealth creation and new ideas, he will argue.

Any incoming government would have to make up for the 13 years Brown – first as chancellor, then as prime minister – has spent "diminishing its economic status", Hague will say.

He will cite the parallel drawn by the US president, Barack Obama, between prosperity and power.

"He was right, and his argument ... applies to this country too," Hague will say.

"And it makes the restoration of our economic fortunes under a new government, with lower deficits, simpler taxes and the opening up of Britain as the natural home for international business the indispensable foundation stone of the construction of effective foreign policy.

"Our ability to undertake economic modernisation will be critical to Britain's future influence. When capital, labour and technology are increasingly mobile we cannot stand still.

"But the change, the modernisation, our economy needs is not guaranteed.

"If our opponents' mistaken arguments and mistaken principles prevailed Britain will move backwards towards a 1970s-style model, with a bigger say for the trade unions who want to impose rigidity and unaffordable regulation across the public and private sector."

According to excerpts from the speech released in advance, Hague will add: "Five more years of Gordon Brown would mean that this country would be associated across the world with risky and unaffordable debt, lack of discipline over spending and trade union power."

Hague will also promise that major national security issues would be tackled by a new national security council including armed Forces and intelligence chiefs.

"A government with a proper national security council would not have taken vital national security decisions, as Clare Short described the scene, in meetings which 'there were never papers. There were little chats about things'," he will say.

"In our new government, if elected, decisions about national security and international relations will be taken together, with the advice of the armed services chiefs, the intelligence agencies and the Foreign Office experts available and in meetings which are properly minuted and recorded."