MP Jeremy Hunt is the UK’s Chancellor (Picture: Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)
Jeremy Hunt is still Chancellor of the Exchequer, after new Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reappointed him on Tuesday, October 25.
The role of Chancellor has been a bit of a revolving door as of late, with his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng only spending 38 days in the job before being dismissed by Liz Truss.
His departure came following his mini-budget announcement, which caused the pound to drop and plunged the markets into chaos.
Now the man charged with the task of managing the country’s finances is Mr Hunt – a Tory politician who has held many roles in Conservative governments over the years.
Here is everything you need to know about him.
Who is Jeremy Hunt?
Jeremy Hunt is a Conservative politician who has served as MP for South West Surrey since May 2005.
To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web
browser that
supports HTML5
video
Mr Hunt, 55, was born on November 1, 1966 and is the eldest son of Admiral Sir Nicholas Hunt, who was a Commander in the Royal Navy, and his wife Meriel Eve.
He is also a distant relation of the late Queen Elizabeth II – he is a fifth cousin, meaning they had the same great-great-great-great-grandparents.
Where was Jeremy Hunt educated?
Jeremy Hunt was educated at Surrey’s fee-paying school Charterhouse, before going on to study Philosophy, Politics and Economics at Magdalen College Oxford.
It was at Oxford University that he first became involved with the Conservative Party, and attended the university at a similar time as former Prime Ministers David Cameron and Boris Johnson.
Mr Hunt was active in the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA) and was even elected its president in 1987.
What is Jeremy Hunt’s political career history?
Jeremy Hunt was at Oxford around the same time as Boris Johnson and David Cameron (Picture: Stefan Rousseau – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
Before entering politics, Mr Hunt ran an educational publishing business called Hotcourses, which he co-founded in 1996 with Mike Elms.
In 2005, he was elected as MP for South West Surrey and backed David Cameron in his leadership bid that same year.
He was appointed Shadow Minister for Disabled People in December 2005, before becoming Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Secretary in Cameron’s July 2007 reshuffle.
When the Conservatives formed a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats in 2010, Mr Hunt became the Culture Secretary and stayed in the role until 2012.
He supported the UK remaining in the European Union during the Brexit referendum in 2016, but later supported Theresa May’s withdrawal plan.
He then served as Health Secretary from September 2012 to July 2018. His time in the role was controversial, with the scrapping of junior doctors’ overtime pay leading to multiple strikes from medical staff across the UK.
His next role came in 2018 when he replaced Boris Johnson as Foreign Secretary, serving in the role from July 2018 to July 2019.
Mr Hunt also announced his campaign to become the leader of the Conservative Party on May 24, 2019 after the resignation of Prime Minister Theresa May.
He was one of the final two candidates but was defeated by Boris Johnson. Mr Johnson received 92,153 votes, beating Hunt’s 46,656.
Mr Johnson did offer Hunt the role of Defence Secretary, but turned it down, writing on Twitter at the time: ‘I would have been honoured to carry on my work at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office but understand the need for a new Prime Minister to choose his team.
Jeremy Hunt is our current Chancellor of the Exchequer (Picture: David Levenson/Getty Images)
More: British Government
‘Boris Johnson kindly offered me another role but after nine years in Cabinet and over 300 cabinet meetings now is the time to return to the backbenches from where the Prime Minister will have my full support.’
When Mr Johnson resigned as PM earlier this year, Mr Hunt did enter the Conservative party leadership race but was eliminated in the first round of voting on July 13.
Jeremy Hunt backed Rishi Sunak in that race, which was won by Liz Truss. She made him Chancellor of the Exchequer, a role he will now continue under new PM Mr Sunak.
Who is Jeremy Hunt’s wife and do they have any children?
Mr Hunt has been married to Lucia Guo since 2009.
Lucia Guo was born in 1978 and is from Xi’an, China. The couple met at a Hotcourses event at the University of Warwick, where she worked helping to recruit Chinese students.
Jeremy and his wife Lucia have been married since 2009 (Picture: Jonathan Brady – WPA Pool/Getty Images)
They were married in a traditional Chinese ceremony in Xi’an and have three children together, a son and two daughters.
Their eldest, Jack, was born in 2010, with Anna following in 2012, while their youngest daughter Eleanor was born in 2014.
The family tend to keep a low profile and is rarely seen in public.
MORE : Jeremy Hunt says Government went ‘too far, too fast’ with mini-budget
Follow Metro across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram
Share your views in the comments below
Jeremy Hunt will remain Chancellor in Rishi Sunak’s government.
