Newly appointed United Kingdom Chancellor Jeremy Hunt is a mild-mannered political survivor who will require all of his considerable experience to calm an economy and government beset by chaos.
Hunt, 55, was Health Minister under David Cameron, and Foreign Minister under Theresa May, but found himself on the sidelines after Boris Johnson defeated him to become party leader in 2019.
After another failed leadership attempt this year, following Johnson’s demise, Hunt suddenly finds himself thrust into the heart of the economic and political storm.
Hunt’s appointment came shortly after the sacking of his predecessor by Truss earlier on Friday.
Under-pressure Prime Minister Liz Truss called him “one of the most experienced and widely respected government ministers and parliamentarians.”
“He will drive our mission to go for growth, including taking forward the supply-side reforms that our country needs,” she said on Friday.
Hunt hails from the centre of the Conservative Party, and his appointment indicates Truss wants to appease those MPs already plotting to remove her after her tax-cutting budget sparked market chaos.
He saw unbroken cabinet service from the Tory election victory in 2010 to his leadership defeat in 2019.
In government, he oversaw the London 2012 Olympics, was Britain’s longest-serving health secretary and proved a steady pair of hands as the UK’s top diplomat.
A supporter of remaining in the EU, Hunt was relegated to the backbenches when pro-Brexit Johnson took charge, although he was chair of the influential Health and Social Care Select Committee, which sought to hold the government to account during the pandemic.
However, he was also criticised for his pandemic planning while health chief.
As the culture, media and sport minister, he was under intense pressure to resign in 2012 over his contacts with Rupert Murdoch during a phone-hacking scandal involving the mogul’s media empire.
However, Hunt toughed it out and the judge-led inquiry into press ethics exonerated him of bias towards Murdoch’s News Corporation in its bid to take over broadcaster BSkyB.
AFP
