Jeremy Hunt's Biography
Who is Jeremy Hunt?
He was born in London on 1 November 1966 but grew up in Surrey.
His father was Admiral Sir Nicholas Hunt and his mother was the daughter of an army major.
Jeremy Hunt was educated at Charterhouse School and Oxford University, where he gained a first class honours degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics.
He was at Oxford at the same time as Boris Johnson and David Cameron.
After a stint at a management consultancy he went to Japan for two years to teach English and learn Japanese.
Before his election as an MP, Jeremy Hunt together with Mike Elms established Hotcourses, in which he later sold his stake, reportedly for £14 million.
He also set up a charity to help AIDS orphans in Africa.
In 2005, Jeremy Hunt was first elected an MP for South West Surrey.
In his first year as an MP he was appointed Shadow Minister for Disabled People.
In July 2007 he was appointed to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport.
In 2009 Jeremy Hunt married Lucia Guo, originally from Xi'an in China.
In May 2010 with the Conservative - Liberal Democrat Coalition in government he became Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport.
From September 2012 to July 2018, Jeremy Hunt was Secretary of State for Health. From January 2018 the department had also been responsible for Social Care.
During the 2016 Referendum to leave the EU, Hunt supported the Remain camp. However he began supporting Brexit in 2017.
In June 2018, Jeremy Hunt became the longest serving Secretary of State for Health in British history.
In July 2018, he was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.
In June 2019, Jeremy Hunt came second to Boris Johnson in the ballot of Tory MPs to choose the next leader to succeed Theresa May and so qualified with Johnson as the two candidates to be voted on by the Conservative Party membership.
On 23 July 2019, Boris Johnson was elected leader of the Conservative Party, beating Jeremy Hunt by 92,153 votes to 46,656.
After his defeat to Johnson, Jeremy Hunt left the Cabinet.
He tweeted about it:
1/4 I would have been honoured to carry on my work at the FCO but understand the need for a new PM to choose his team. BJ kindly offered me another role but after 9 yrs in Cabinet & over 300 cab mtgs now is the time to return 2 backbenches from where PM will have my full support
— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) July 24, 2019
In July 2022 Jeremy Hunt stood for leader of the Conservative Party (and therefore Prime Minister) after the resignation of Boris Johnson - however he was eliminated in the first ballot round after failing to gain 30 votes from his parliamentary colleagues.
On 14 October 2022, after the surprise departure of Kwasi Kwarteng, Jeremy Hunt was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Back to Top
