I see the new regime is in talks with airlines regarding long haul destinations
Maybe so; clearly VAS will have far better links with a number of long-haul carriers than Peel will have had to date. This will inevitably mean that they're more likely now to be able to get a foot in the door with such carriers to at least be able to discuss a LPL option.
True - this is a better position, I am sure, than LPL has ever had before.
This said, it doesn't necessarily mean any carrier is actually any more likely than before to do anything. Long haul normally means large aircraft (especially if you need to get to the low per seat prices that the LPL market normally demands), which means a lot of seats to fill and which generally means you need some sort of feed either at one end of the route or the other. Very few long-haul routes can survive on O&D passengers only; I would suggest that unless EZY has a change of heart soon, long-haul will always be elusive to LPL as with the strength of MAN in the long-haul market it will never be able to produce enough volumes to consistently fill aircraft.