Rishi Sunak is the Tory party's best chance in years | Wililam Hague

William Hague told Times Radio that he feels relief, trepidation, and hope about the new government but says Rishi Sunak will be a "superb" prime minister.

I feel relief that Boris Johnson didn't come back at the last minute. I feel trepidation that it's going to be a very, very hard time in government for the new team. And hope though because here we have this very diligent, competent, resourceful, thoughtful person who I've known yes, for the last eight years. And I've formed the opinion over that time that he would be a superb Prime Minister. And I think he will bring stability, he will bring hope but he will have, yes, stupid, stupendously difficult task to do.

The former leader of the Conservatives told Aasmah Mir and Stig Abell that the party now has its best chance in years.

The Conservative Party now has a better chance than it's had for some years. Partly because just this last few days and a few weeks, has ruled out most alternative ways of proceeding. For those who thought Boris Johnson was the answer to come back, well, we just discovered that no, there isn't the support for that. For those who thought there should be a radical change of economic approach, which Liz Truss tried to bring in, that has just been blown to pieces. So actually, now, it's probably I think there is a moment for the Conservative Party to say, right, we've tried now we've tried all the things that didn't work, let's rally around something that will work.

Lord Hague told Times Radio Breakfast that Liz Truss' legacy will be her work in relations with Europe and Ireland.

I've been very critical of Liz Truss. And I think there were terrible mistakes made over how she put her government together and over the famous or infamous mini budget. So I've really been more critical than of any Conservative Prime Minister ever. But can I find something positive? Well, behind the scenes, I think there's been a serious effort to improve relations with European neighbours, particularly Ireland, and to work on resolving the Northern Ireland protocol very remains a very difficult problem. It's not done yet. But there has been that quietly constructive and responsible approach behind the scenes that I hope the new cabinet team will now be able to continue. So if that comes to success in due course, well, she will have started that off. So that's I think that's the most positive thing I can think of to say.

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