1. Sir Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt was born on 1 November 1966 and is a British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer from 2022 to 2024, Foreign Secretary from 2018 to 2019, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2012 to 2018 and as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport from 2010 to 2012.
The son of an Admiral of the Royal Navy, Jeremy Hunt was born in Kennington and studied philosophy, politics and economics at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association.
Jeremy Hunt was first elected to the House of Commons in 2005 and was promoted to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Minister for Disabled People and later as Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
Jeremy Hunt served in the coalition government as Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport, in which post he led the drive for local TV, resulting in Ofcom awarding local TV broadcasting licences in respect of several cities and towns.
Jeremy Hunt oversaw the 2012 London Olympics, which received widespread acclaim.
Jeremy Hunt was a candidate for the leadership election in 2019, finishing second to Johnson.
Jeremy Hunt served as Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee from 2020 to 2022, a prominent role due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jeremy Hunt was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer by Liz Truss on 14 October 2022, following the dismissal of Kwasi Kwarteng, and retained the post in Rishi Sunak's ministry following Truss's resignation amid a government crisis.
Jeremy Hunt was born on 1 November 1966 in Lambeth Hospital, Kennington, and raised in Shere, Surrey.
Jeremy Hunt is the eldest son of Admiral Sir Nicholas Hunt, who was then a Commander in the Royal Navy assigned to work for the Director of Naval Plans inside the recently created Ministry of Defence, and his wife Meriel Eve Hunt, Lady Hunt, daughter of Major Henry Cooke Givan.
The Jeremy Hunt family were landed gentry, of Boreatton, Baschurch, Shropshire.
Jeremy Hunt is a distant relative of Queen Elizabeth II and of British Union of Fascists leader Sir Oswald Mosley.
Jeremy Hunt's father worked in NHS management after retiring from the navy, and his mother was a nurse in the 1950s and 1960s.
Jeremy Hunt was privately educated at Charterhouse where he was Head of School.
Jeremy Hunt then studied philosophy, politics and economics at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with a first class honours Bachelor of Arts degree.
Jeremy Hunt became involved in Conservative politics while at university, where David Cameron and Boris Johnson were contemporaries.
Jeremy Hunt was active in the Oxford University Conservative Association and was elected to serve as president in 1987.
In 1991, Jeremy Hunt co-founded a public relations agency named Profile PR specialising in IT with Mike Elms, a childhood friend.
Jeremy Hunt had been interested in creating a 'guide to help people who want to study rather than just travel abroad' and, together with Elms, founded a company known as Hotcourses in the 1990s, a major client of which is the British Council.
Jeremy Hunt later denied that the policy pamphlet expresses his views.
In David Cameron's reshuffle of 2 July 2007, Jeremy Hunt joined the Shadow cabinet as Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
In 2009, Jeremy Hunt was investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards.
Mr Jeremy Hunt received no real financial benefit from the arrangement and that the error was caused by his misinterpretation of the rules.
Jeremy Hunt offered to repay half the money, which was accepted.
Jeremy Hunt was consequently appointed a Privy Councillor on 13 May 2010.
In June 2010, Jeremy Hunt attracted controversy for suggesting football hooliganism played a part in the death of 96 football fans in the Hillsborough disaster; this was despite the fact that it had been established that a lack of police control and the presence of terraces and perimeter fences were the causes of the tragedy.
Jeremy Hunt was given the quasi-judicial power to adjudicate over the News Corporation takeover bid for BSkyB.
Jeremy Hunt chose not to refer the deal to the Competition Commission, announcing on 3 March 2011 that he intended to accept a series of undertakings given by News Corporation, paving the way for the deal to be approved.
Jeremy Hunt was alleged to have had improper contact with News Corporation.
Jeremy Hunt said Lord Justice Leveson should be able to investigate and rule on the accusations and requested the earliest date possible to give evidence to the Inquiry to set out his side of the story.
Jeremy Hunt appeared before the Leveson Inquiry on 31 May 2012, when it emerged that Jeremy Hunt had himself been in text and private email contact with James Murdoch.
Journalist Iain Martin claimed that at a 2010 event held at UCL, which Murdoch attended, he saw Jeremy Hunt hide behind a tree to avoid being seen by journalists.
Jeremy Hunt showed a willingness to follow Ofcom's advice and to take action, to the extent recommended by the regulators, in response to the consultation.
When it transpired that contractors G4S could not provide enough security staff for the Games, Jeremy Hunt announced that soldiers would be drafted in and that he had been forced to "think again" about the default use of private contractors.
Jeremy Hunt took the decision to double the budget for the opening ceremony which received acclaim, and overall the Games were considered a huge success internationally.
Jeremy Hunt campaigned to increase the emphasis on the importance of the tourism industry, especially the potential of the Chinese tourist market.
Jeremy Hunt was appointed Secretary of State for Health in the 2012 cabinet reshuffle, succeeding Andrew Lansley.
Jeremy Hunt oversaw increased spending on the NHS but was criticised for controversial reforms, manipulating figures and increased privatisation.
Jeremy Hunt defended the universal coverage provided by the NHS, including against US President Donald Trump.
Jeremy Hunt has supported reducing the abortion limit from 24 weeks to 12 weeks and homoeopathy if recommended to patients by a doctor.
In 2012, Jeremy Hunt attempted to downgrade casualty and maternity units in Lewisham.
In July 2015, Jeremy Hunt became the subject of the first petition on a new UK Government website to reach the threshold of 100,000 signatures required for a petition to be considered for debate in Parliament.
Jeremy Hunt supported Britain remaining in the European Union in the 2016 referendum.
Jeremy Hunt became the longest-serving Health Secretary in British political history on 3 June 2018.
In October 2016, Jeremy Hunt called for a reduction in the number of foreign doctors working in the NHS after the UK left the EU.
At the Conservative Party Conference later in the month, Jeremy Hunt pledged, by 2025, the NHS would be "self-sufficient in doctors".
Jeremy Hunt announced an increase of up to 1,500 extra places at medical schools in the UK in 2018, partly funded by an increase in international medical student fees.
In October 2017, Jeremy Hunt stated he supported Brexit, citing the "arrogance of the EU Commission" in responding to the UK Government in the Brexit negotiations.
Jeremy Hunt failed to disclose his interest in the property firm on the Parliamentary Register of Members' interests within the required 28 days.
Jeremy Hunt was criticised by statisticians David Spiegelhalter and David Craven, BMA council chair Mark Porter and Shadow Health Secretary Heidi Alexander for his claims not merely misrepresenting the facts but potentially causing patients to delay hospitals visits and put themselves at risk.
Jeremy Hunt's critics described the Hunt Effect where patients who needed medical attention at a weekend had been deterred from doing so because they were persuaded it would be better to wait until a Monday.
In October 2015, Jeremy Hunt was accused by the editor of The BMJ, Fiona Godlee, of repeatedly misrepresenting a study published in the journal on the weekend effect.
Jeremy Hunt had used the study as evidence when stating reduced staffing levels of doctors at weekends directly led to 11,000 excess deaths.
In January 2016, Jeremy Hunt was criticised by stroke doctors for using out-of-date data to show stroke patients were more likely to die if admitted at weekends.
In September 2015, the British Medical Association said they would not re-enter negotiations unless Jeremy Hunt dropped his threat to impose the contract and balloted their members for industrial action.
Jeremy Hunt tried reassuring the BMA by saying that no junior doctor would face a pay cut, before admitting those who worked longer than 56 hours a week would face a fall in pay but said working these long hours was unsafe.
In February 2016, Jeremy Hunt was polled as the "most disliked" frontline British politician.
Jeremy Hunt said he had lessons to learn but denied any personal responsibility for the dispute.
Also, in 2016, both Stephen Hawking and Robert Winston called for an inquiry into claims made by Jeremy Hunt regarding whether the NHS had sufficient funding, with Hawking saying Jeremy Hunt had "cherry-picked research, causing a devastating breakdown of trust between Government and the medical profession".
Jeremy Hunt was appointed Foreign Secretary in July 2018 following the resignation of Boris Johnson.
Jeremy Hunt supported the Saudi Arabian-led military intervention in Yemen and described Saudi Arabia as a "very, very important military ally".
In July 2018, Jeremy Hunt visited China and met China's foreign minister Wang Yi.
Jeremy Hunt said that the "UK-China Strategic Dialogue is an important opportunity to intensify our cooperation on shared challenges in international affairs, ranging from global free trade to non-proliferation and environmental challenges, under the UK-China Global Partnership and 'Golden Era' for UK-China relations".
On 23 August 2018, Jeremy Hunt met United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to discuss the 'threat' from both countries.
Jeremy Hunt supported the continued efforts of the UK Government to leave the European Union.
In November 2018, Jeremy Hunt threatened the United Arab Emirates with "serious diplomatic consequences" after it sentenced British research student Matthew Hedges to life in prison for allegedly spying for the UK.
Jeremy Hunt said that the verdict "is not what we expect from a friend and trusted partner of the United Kingdom and runs contrary to earlier assurances".
Jeremy Hunt announced his campaign to become the leader of the Conservative Party on 24 May 2019, following the resignation of Prime Minister Theresa May On 20 June 2019, he was named one of the final two candidates.
Jeremy Hunt was defeated by Boris Johnson, having secured only one third of the vote.
Jeremy Hunt was elected as the new chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee in January 2020, succeeding Sarah Wollaston.
In February 2020, Jeremy Hunt called for an inquiry into the National Health Service after the publishing of many reports regarding infant mortality in NHS hospitals.
In March 2020, Jeremy Hunt expressed disapproval of the Government's response to the emerging COVID-19 pandemic, criticising the Government for still allowing "external visits to care homes" and "not preventing mass gatherings".
Jeremy Hunt voted against Boris Johnson in the 2022 vote of confidence and urged other colleagues to do the same.
Jeremy Hunt writes that in the NHS there are 150 preventable deaths each week, and draws on the experience of the airline industry to advocate a shift from a blame culture to a learning culture.
Jeremy Hunt said he would retain the rise in National Insurance rates and would not cut personal taxation until he "[got] the economy growing".
Jeremy Hunt said Esther McVey would be deputy prime minister if he were to become prime minister.
In July 2023, Jeremy Hunt outlined reforms to the pension industry with the aim of boosting pension pots and increasing investment in British businesses.
In November 2023, Jeremy Hunt gave the November 2023 autumn statement.
Jeremy Hunt presented the 2024 budget on 6 March 2024.
Jeremy Hunt said that he would not stand in the 2024 Conservative Party leadership election.
On 31 October 2024, Jeremy Hunt confirmed that he had told both of the two leadership candidates, Kemi Badenoch and Robert Jenrick, that he would stand down from the shadow cabinet after the new leader was elected, citing the "big drubbing in the election" and the need to "reflect on that and show new faces to the country" as his reasoning.
Jeremy Hunt first met Guo in 2008, when she was working at Warwick University recruiting Chinese students for the university.
Jeremy Hunt owns a townhouse in Pimlico, central London, as well as a home in Hambledon, Surrey.
Jeremy Hunt speaks Japanese, having studied the language for two years while working in Japan as an English-language teacher in the 1990s.
Jeremy Hunt has named his personal political heroes as Margaret Thatcher and William Wilberforce.
Jeremy Hunt has advocated pro-active good mental health through actions including exercise, social contacts, gratitude and sleep.
On 11 April 2025, Jeremy Hunt was Knighted in Rishi Sunak's Resignation Honours List.