Who Is Jeremy Hunt? The Newly Appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer

Jeremy Hunt, a member of the Conservative Party who has been Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Surrey since 2005 has been appointed as the new Chancellor of the Exchequer after Prime Minister Liz Truss sacked Kwasi Kwarteng.

Kwarteng, who had had only been in his new job for 38 days was being dismissed following his mini-budget announcement, which caused the pound to drop and plunged the markets into chaos.

His replacement, Jeremy Hunt (full name Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt) previously served in the Cabinet as;

• Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport from 2010 to 2012,
• Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2012 to 2018, and
• Foreign Secretary from 2018 to 2019.

Born on 1 Nov.1966, in Lambeth Hospital, Kennington, and raised in Shere, Surrey, near the constituency he represents in Parliament, Jeremy 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 née Givan (now Lady Hunt), daughter of Major Henry Cooke Givan.

Jeremy was educated at Charterhouse where he was Head of School and studied Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he was President of the Oxford University Conservative Association.

He became involved in Conservative politics while at university. He was active in the Oxford University Conservative Association (OUCA), and was elected to serve as president in 1987.

He was a candidate for the Conservative Party leadership election in 2019, finishing second to Johnson, getting 33.6% of the members’ vote to Johnson’s 66.4%.

However, he resigned, effective immediately, following Johnson’s election as Prime Minister, and declined an invitation to serve in Johnson’s first ministry as Secretary of State for Defence.

Following Johnson’s resignation on 5 July 2022, Jeremy launched a second Conservative leadership bid.

However, he was eliminated in the first ballot round on 13 July after not getting the required 30 votes from Conservative MPs. He got 18 votes instead.

On 14 October 2022, he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer by Liz Truss, following the dismissal of Kwasi Kwarteng.

Jeremy Hunt is married to Lucia Hunt (born Lucia Guo) and they have three children; Eleanor Hunt, Jack Hunt and Anna Hunt.