William Hague Says Gay-Affair Talk Has Not Hit Work of U.K. Foreign Office

British Foreign Secretary William Hague said the work of his department had not “missed a beat” after he was forced yesterday to deny having an affair with a male aide.

Hague, 49, yesterday issued a statement saying he and wife Ffion were “happily married” and that rumors on the Internet about the nature of his relationship with Christopher Myers, a special adviser who resigned from his job the same afternoon, were “utterly false.” Hague said he regretted sharing hotel rooms with the aide during the campaign for the May 6 election.

“The work of the Foreign Office hasn’t missed a beat and will not miss a beat at any stage,” Hague told a joint press conference in London today with his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle. “I haven’t spent many minutes away from my duties.”

Hague, who was Conservative Party leader between 1997 and 2001, said Myers was “someone who’s rather fed up with the political world, and who can blame him?”

“At some point you have to speak out” and “put the record straight,” Hague said. “We dealt with all that yesterday.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Robert Hutton in London at rhutton1@bloomberg.net

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