- Name: The Right Honourable Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt MP
- Ministerial role: Secretary of State for Health
- Born: 1 November 1966
- Education: Charterhouse School and Magdalen College, Oxford
- Family: Married with one son
- Interests: Theatre, classical music, Latin dancing (especially the lambada), Africa
- Political hero: William Wilberforce for the abolition of the slave trade
- His fans say: “Very bright, smooth, cool, and a nimble operator”, Paul Goodman, ConHome
University career
At Oxford, Hunt was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association and secured a First in aspiring politicians’ favourite subject, PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics).
Business career
Post-graduation, he worked briefly in management consultancy and dabbled in a series of less than successful business ventures, including a plan to export marmalade to Japan. He eventually moved there for two years to learn Japanese, supporting himself by working as a TEFL teacher – Hunt remains a fan of Japanese culture and is still fluent in the language.
Upon his return to Britain, he set up Profile PR, a marketing consultancy for the technology sector, then established Hotcourses, an educational publishing firm producing guides to higher education institutions and courses. The successful businessman also has a philanthropic side: his Hotcourses Foundation, a charity supporting children affected by HIV and AIDS, funded and built the Hotcourses Primary School in Kitui Province, Eastern Kenya, with over 600 pupils at present, most of whom are AIDS orphans.
Parliamentary career
Hunt joined Parliament at the 2005 election as MP for prosperous and leafy South West Surrey, filling the gap left when former Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley was raised to the peerage. He used his maiden speech to raise concerns about funding for Milford Hospital, a specialist rehabilitation hospital in his constituency. His proudest political achievement is saving the A&E department at the Royal Surrey County Hospital from closure but one wonders whether he secretly cherishes more his top spot in the 2008 “Most Fanciable MP” poll by Sky News.
In Opposition, he was Shadow Minister for Disabled People from 2005 to 2007, when he took a particular interest in severely disabled children and in simplifying the benefits system. From 2007 to 2010, he was Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and Shadow Minister for the Olympics. He played Nick Clegg in the rehearsals for the leaders’ debates to much acclaim. At the 2010 General Election, he held South West Surrey with an increased 16,000 majority and a positive swing of 8.6%.
Ministerial career
Having kept his DCMS brief in the Coalition Cabinet, Hunt gained early recognition for being the first minister to set out his spending commitments, earning him a place on the public spending committee, more colloquially known as the “Star Chamber”. His decision to scrap the UK Film Council and 13 other cultural quangos was criticised by the arts world and the National Audit Office, but this was quickly overshadowed by the storm over Rupert Murdoch’s attempted £8bn acquisition of BSkyB, the phone hacking scandal and the Leveson Inquiry.
Maybe it’s time to brush up your Japanese, dig out those Latin dancing shoes or look for an African connection to your health issues…