Theresa May, who lost the Tories their majority in a general election, has said she believes the Tories can win the next general election.
The ex-PM backed Rishi Sunak to turn around the party's fortunes despite a Labour lead in the polls, as he tries to repair the damage done by predecessor Liz Truss.
"There's no doubt that the mini-budget had an impact on the Conservative Party's reputation for sound money and sound public finances," she told BBC Radio 4's PM programme.
"But I think what we've seen already with the new Chancellor and a new Prime Minister is taking the process of re-establishing that reputation.
"And I think from everything we've seen from Rishi so far, that actually he's going to be able to turn that round by the next election.
"I see that we can in those two years show people that a Conservative government can be on their side and that he can turn it round and we can win that election."
It comes four years after Mrs May led a disastrous snap election campaign, which turned a slim Tory majority into a minority government that depended on the DUP for votes.
Mrs May had vowed to be “strong and stable” but was humiliated when she U-turned on her flagship social care policy. It was dubbed the “dementia tax” and she bizarrely claimed “nothing has changed” at a press conference defending the U-turn.
Meanwhile Mrs May hit out at the UK government over its threat to water down her modern slavery laws, and its refusal to consider reforms for trans people.
The Tory government has threatened to block the Scottish government’s decision to make it easier for trans Scots to obtain a gender recognition certificate.
When Mrs May was PM, she put forward plans to enable transgender people to change their birth certificate without a medical diagnosis.
But they were ditched under Boris Johnson amid a backlash from gender critical groups.
"The very fact that I put the proposal forward shows that that was something that I thought was important to do, particularly to take some of the medical aspects out of this," she said.
"But the Government has looked again at it and has taken the decision that it has."
She warned Mr Sunak to consider “what the impact would be on the Union” if the Scottish law was blocked, adding: “At the end of the day it is about people, and it's about the impact it would have on people."
Meanwhile she warned efforts to tighten modern slavery laws to prevent migrants using them to avoid being deported risk creating other loopholes that could be exploited.
The Modern Slavery Act was introduced by Mrs May during her time as home secretary in order to protect vulnerable people from exploitation, domestic servitude or being trafficked for sex.
Mrs May told BBC Radio 4's PM: "We need to ensure we don't reduce our world-leading protections for victims of modern slavery."
She added: "It's important not - inadvertently - to create another potential loophole.
"So, for example, there's talk of requiring more evidence from individuals.
"If you're somebody who's been trafficked here as a sex slave, and you manage to find your way out of that and look to somebody for help, the chances are you probably haven't got a piece of paper or a written statement from somebody to say 'you've been in slavery'. The evidence comes gradually.
"If you are somebody who is being brought by a criminal gang who are abusing the system, and they know there needs to be a piece of paper, they probably will provide a piece of paper.
"So it's making sure that, in dealing with problems that are identified, we don't create other problems."
