Gentle Hunt, who ran against Johnson in 2019, is still looking at No. 10 and this week urged fellow Conservative MPs to rise up against Johnson because the party “did not give the British people the leadership they deserved.” ». The prime minister survived a subsequent no-confidence motion with 211 votes to 148 on Monday, but was seriously injured. Hunt, a former foreign minister, would be “anti-Boris”: managerial, perfectly fit, a little boring. Some in Johnson’s circle wondered if the prime minister could try to keep his enemy close, possibly offering Hunt the role of finance minister. But most laughed at the idea: it’s not Johnson’s style. Hunt, on the other hand, was briefly informed that the Johnson’s government had approved drilling for hydrocarbons in his bucolic constituency in southwest Surrey, a decision that left environmentalists sidelined: “Ridiculous.” The prospect of Dansfold Village becoming a minor Home Counties Dallas has caused local shock and is a gift to Hunt’s challengers for the position. This is unlikely to bother Johnson. Jeremy Richard Strinsham Hunt, 55, has been in Johnson’s line for several years, convinced that at some point Tory lawmakers will get tired of the chaotic style of prime minister. Hunt would be the man to pick up the pieces. But some are wondering if he wants the top spot enough. Colleagues urged him to launch a more aggressive campaign: “In politics, power is not given, it is taken,” says one ally. After Monday’s coup failed, Hunt kept his head down. “Jeremy believes the party will decide for itself without the need for help to do so,” said one supporter. “Jeremy says he’s not a natural destabilizer and probably wouldn’t do very well if he tried.” The son of a senior Royal Navy admiral and raised in a picturesque Surrey village, Hunt has classic credentials: leader at the expensive Charterhouse School, with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford University. He became an entrepreneur and taught English in Japan for two years. His first business ventures included a failed attempt to export jam to the country. His wife, Lucia Guo, is Chinese, although she made a “terrible” blunder when, on his first visit to Beijing as foreign minister, he described her as “Japanese”. The couple has a son and two daughters. He eventually created Hotcourses – which manages educational listing sites around the world – in the 1990s. Elected in 2005, he fit well into the mold of David Cameron’s new Conservative Party. Right in finance – an ally says Hunt is “a true Thatcherite” – he was socially liberal and embraced green issues. He became Secretary of Culture at Cameron’s first cabinet in 2010, overseeing the 2012 London Olympics, before taking over the running of Britain’s health service in a time of austerity. It was a daunting political challenge, but he later became Britain’s longest-serving health minister. Along the way he gathered enemies in the NHS – mainly after moves to change doctors’ contracts to tackle the problem of high death rates over the weekend. Nadine Dorries, Johnson’s secretary of culture and loyalist, claimed this week that Hunt had left the NHS unprepared for Covid and, when the virus struck, backed tough China-type quarantine measures. “Handling the pandemic would be a disaster,” he said. Ever since he left the cabinet, his role as chairman of the Commons health committee has given him a constant voice about the NHS problems that still plague him. Hunt campaigned for Remain in the 2016 EU referendum, but then – somewhat unlikely – said a year later that he believed Brexit was a good idea, given the European Commission’s “arrogance” in the exit talks. It was a clear sign that he was preparing for a top position in a party where it is now necessary to be in favor of Brexit. After becoming Secretary of State in 2018 under Theresa May – replacing Johnson, who broke out over May’s proposed Brexit deal – he had the ideal platform. May’s resignation a year later led Hunt to face Johnson as prime minister. In disputes with party members, his smooth technocratic style contrasts with Johnson’s unstable populism. But there was a problem. “Every night you left thinking Jeremy had won the debate, but the next morning people could not remember anything he said,” one person admitted in his leadership campaign. In the end, Johnson had a decisive victory. Johnson offered the defeated Hunt a job in his cabinet as Secretary of Defense, a demotion. Hunt refused. “He believed that the whole government would collapse and he could come in and say ‘I told you so,’” said one ally. Others were furious. “Commanding the army, navy and air force is never a job you deny, especially not to the Conservative Party,” said a former cabinet minister. Fans say that Hunt is right to avoid campaigning for a job when there is no vacancy, but that behind the calm, polite exterior lies a man of ambition. “It has an inner steel, it is hard,” says one. Some Tories, especially those representing Johnson’s North of England seats in the 2019 election, believe the far south of Hunt would be electorally responsible. “It would be a disaster,” said a North Toris MP. “He can not communicate with my constituents.” But Andrew Mitchell, a former Tory leader, says Hunt would eventually triumph because Tory lawmakers want three things from a new leader: ». [email protected], [email protected]
