Speaking at the Finance and Leasing Association (FLA) Annual Dinner, Lord Hague (pictured) added criticism of Theresa May for continually pushing her Brexit deal and said UK politics was an embarrassment.
He also warned that businesses would need to be resilient and prepare for further nationalism and populism shifts in the next few years.
Lord Hague spent much of his keynote speech satirising the current UK political landscape and some of his experiences over 30 years in politics.
Highest humiliation threshold
However, he also spent some time considering where the country is with regards to Brexit and the wider political landscape.
“Theresa May keeps coming back with the same version of the same thing – she has the highest humiliation threshold of any prime minister,” he said.
“She is nevertheless facing a 20% chance of a hard or no deal Brexit at some stage, not because people necessarily voted for it, but because the period of a delay might never get sorted out and her deal might never get agreed.
“It is the default. It is the law that UK will leave at 11pm on 29 March.”
However, he added there was no doubt a majority of parliament who wanted to stop a hard Brexit happening “and they can be very innovative”.
“They can make new rules and they will do so if they believe they need to do so if they need to frustrate that outcome,” he continued.
Extended political chaos
The Conservative peer also suggested that if there were to be a delay to the Brexit process it may be for three months, which would take the deadline to June 29, although he stressed this was a guess and not information.
Lord Hague warned that the country could also be in for a longer period of political chaos, saying: “You may think this is the extended period of political chaos, but no, this is the short version of political chaos, it could go on for longer.”
He continued: “Of course the state of our politics is a bit of an embarrassment, but don’t let politics blind us to the positive things that are happening in our country.”
And he told businesses to prepare for this instability with long-term planning and diverse support.
“In the next few years, there will be, I’m afraid, increased nationalism and populism so you have to prepare for that,” he continued.
“A successful business will need resilience in the next few years and diversity of advice and local knowledge, because one country will differ from another [alongside] long-term planning because there will be short term crises along the way.”
