On 4 August 1997, just weeks after becoming the youngest Conservative leader in nearly two centuries, William Hague visited Flambards theme park in Helston, Cornwall, for a photo opportunity.

During the visit, Hague was photographed on a log flume wearing a personalised, navy-blue baseball cap, emblazoned with the word “HAGUE” in bold white text.

The Conservative leader braved the flume alongside Seb Coe, his chief of staff, and David Harris, his party’s new Cornwall spokesman – a water-themed stunt that would make even Ed Davey blush.

The Conservatives had lost all its seats in Cornwall at the 1997 general election; Hague’s appearance in the county marked the opening leg of his two month “meet the people tour” of the UK.

“You have to see things with your own eyes”, Hague said.

Unfortunately for the Conservative leader, people did.

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At the time, Hague was perhaps best known for the speech he delivered as a 16-year-old to the Conservative Party’s 1977 national conference. Two decades on, Hague’s choice of headgear – seemingly designed to counter perceptions of the Conservatives as stuffy and out of touch – was utterly ridiculed.

In simple terms, it showed a new Conservative leader trying a little too hard to make his mark. More abstractly, the awkward and inauthentic attempt to appear “cool” only shone a light on those aspects of the Conservative Party’s brand that gaffe sought to neutralise.

The “Hague cap” incident, therefore, swiftly entered political folklore.

The Tory leader himself later acknowledged his PR blunder, auctioning one of the caps for charity in 1999. Its estimated value was £15.00.

In hindsight, the cap gaffe represents Hague’s abortive attempt to ‘modernise’ his party. As the 1997-2001 parliament progressed, with the polls continuing to show prime minister Tony Blair in the ascendancy, Hague retreated more and more into traditional Tory territory to appease his anxious party: from log flume to “foreign land”.

During his tenure as Tory leader, Hague also acquired a series of unflattering nicknames. He was ridiculed as “Hague the vague”, “the Yorkshire strangler” and William “14 Pints” Hague. The Sunday Telegraph, which reportedly coined the Yorkshire strangler” moniker, said Hague deserved the title because of his prowess at Judo.

In August 2000, Hague told GQ magazine that between the ages of 15 and 21 he drank 14 pints a day during a summer job hauling crates of drinks into pubs across South Yorkshire. The remark was intended to offset the lingering image of Hague as a 16-year-old addressing the Conservative Party conference and as an ardent admirer of Margaret Thatcher.

All this contributed to a mixed public perception. An opinion poll in 2001 revealed that while most people (69%) thought Hague was not nasty, two thirds (66%) thought he came over as “a bit of a wally”.

Hague recorded successes at the European parliamentary elections in June 1999, when the Conservatives gained 18 MEPs. Moreover, Hague’s powerful and popular opposition to the UK joining the Euro likely proved a significant factor in the Labour government’s eventual decision not to adopt the single currency, at a time when most of the European Union was moving across to it.

Under Hague’s leadership, the Conservative Party briefly jumped ahead of Labour in the polls following the 2000 fuel protests/blockade. In response, Hague declared: “The Conservative Party is ready for government. We have got a team that’s ready for government.”

But while his talented and confident oratory regularly ruffled Tony Blair at prime minister’s questions, Hague was ultimately no match for the New Labour political juggernaut. As the 1997-2001 parliament progressed, with the polls continuing to show Blair in the ascendancy, Hague retreated more and more into traditional Tory territory to appease his anxious party.

In March 2001, Hague delivered a controversial speech warning that continued integration with the European Union would turn Britain into a “foreign land”. In the speech’s most memorable and controversial passage, Hague ​​invited his audience to imagine the consequences of another Labour victory, declaring: “Let me take you on a journey to a foreign land – to Britain after a second term of Tony Blair.”

Responding to Hague’s speech, former deputy prime minister Lord Heseltine said: “Does anyone seriously think that France is a ‘foreign’ country? Or that Germany is a ‘foreign’ country?”

Heseltine spoke of a “dilemma” over whether to vote Conservative at the next general election.

Hague’s 2001 general election campaign was widely derided as misjudged, resulting in the gain of just one seat. Labour’s 179-seat majority in 1997 was cut to 166 – a second successive landslide.

Hague announced his resignation as Conservative leader on the morning after polling day with results still rolling in. Hague conceded that, “we have not been able to persuade a majority or anything approaching a majority, that we are yet the alternative government that they need.”

Iain Duncan Smith was elected as Hague’s replacement. Duncan Smith was the first Conservative leader elected by a ballot of members – a change Hague had overseen during his tenure. Hague endorsed Duncan Smith in 2001.

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Years afterwards, the cap continued to be referenced mockingly by Hague’s political opponents.

In April 2008, deputy Labour leader Harriet Harman, standing in for Gordon Brown at prime minister’s questions, quipped that Hague was “the very last person I would look to” for sartorial advice.

Hague, a PMQs veteran, was standing in for Conservative leader David Cameron. He criticised Harman’s decision to wear a stab-proof vest while on patrol with police in her Peckham constituency, suggesting it showed she did not feel safe on the streets.

Hague said: “You had to explain yesterday that you dress in accordance with wherever you go – you wear a helmet to a building site, you wear Indian clothes to Indian parts of your constituency.

“Presumably when you go to a cabinet meeting you dress as a clown.”

Harman responded: “If am looking for advice on what to wear or what not to wear, I think the very last person I would look to for advice is the man in a baseball cap.”

In 2010, Hague was appointed foreign secretary in the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government. He was viewed as a loyal and reliable ally of Cameron’s leadership

“The man in a baseball cap” stood down from parliament at the 2015 general election. He was succeeded as the MP for Richmond by Rishi Sunak.