WILLIAM Hague visited Bolton yesterday to help launch the Conservative Party’s manifesto on the Town Hall steps.

The Tory shadow foreign secretary said his party was working hard to crack the traditionally difficult North West region.

He said that senior members would be paying more visits in a bid to swing the vote their way.

Speaking to local Tory candidates Deborah Dunleavy, Susan Williams and Andy Morgan and their supporters, Mr Hague said the party’s manifesto — titled Invitation To Join The Government of Britain — would offer a genuine chance for people to have a say in the running of the country.

He said: “This is a real choice for people. This is a chance to get rid of the top-down, stateheavy democracy and give people a choice over their own lives.

“We want people to be responsible for their own decisions and we have a choice between change with the Conservatives or ruin with Labour.

“Britain is a great, ingenious country that has been sat on for too long by too much bureaucracy and too much regulation.

“This offers not only a change in Government but a change in the way the country is governed.”

Stand-out pledges contained in the Tory manifesto included enabling public sector workers to take ownership of the services they deliver. This would be done through the formation of co-operatives.

The manifesto also proposed power for constituents to sack their MP if they are found to have committed serious wrongdoing, power for residents to veto high council tax increases and instigate referendums on any local issue, if they can gain support of five per cent of the population, and the creation of directly-elected police chiefs who would set budgets and strategy for forces.

After addressing the candidates, Mr Hague chatted to shoppers as he made his way to Bolton Market, where he met stall holders and customers.

Speaking to David Maxwell, owner of the Cosy Cafe in Ashburner Street, Mr Hague joked that the pair shared the same hair cut.

Mr Maxwell said: “I’ll be voting Conservative, I always do.”

Inside the market, the Conservative MP, who is a staunch Yorkshireman, was handed a bag of Lancashire cheese by Paul Purdon of Purdon’s Cheeses.

Mr Purdon said: “As a Yorkshireman, I thought he would appreciate some proper Lancashire cheese.”

However, other people were not as sold on the idea.

One shopper in Newport Street said: “They are all the same. I am a Labour man — but this time I might not even vote.”