>#Jeremy Hunt: ‘I can restore voters’ trust … I stayed out of the Boris bubble, after all’
>Launching his Tory leadership bid, former health secretary says not serving under the PM gives him an edge over others
>By Ben Riley-Smith, POLITICAL EDITOR
>9 July 2022 • 9:30pm
>When the end finally came, it was a relief to Jeremy Hunt.
>The former foreign secretary watched live from his parliamentary office as the Number 10 door swung open shortly after midday on Thursday and Boris Johnson called time on his premiership.
>Less than three years earlier, Mr Hunt had been the last Tory standing between Mr Johnson and Downing Street, having made the final two as the strongest “Stop Boris” candidate.
>After defeat, he turned down the offer of defence secretary, rejecting his rival’s Cabinet for the backbenches, from where he followed this week’s spectacular political implosion.
>Chatting to The Telegraph in the basement kitchen of his central London townhouse, Mr Hunt, 55, mulled over a seismic seven days in British politics.
>“I started the week desperately worried for the country and for the Conservative Party because we were rapidly losing the trust of large swathes of the electorate, including many people who voted for us,” he said.
>“We were in a situation where the country was facing paralysis; the Government wasn’t able to deliver what it promised. So I think I feel a sense of relief that that at least has been resolved.”
>__Setting his stall for Tory leadership__
>But the reason Mr Hunt talked to this title is not to look back. Instead, it was to announce the biggest decision of his recent political career: that he will, once again, run to become the next Conservative Party leader and thus the next Prime Minister.
>“It’s very straightforward why I want to do it,” he began, laying out the core themes of his pitch. “It is because we have to restore trust, grow the economy, and win the next election. Those are the three things that have to happen and I believe I can do that.”
>Over almost an hour of discussion, there are plenty of policy announcements. Most notably, a one-two punch of business tax cuts: cutting corporation tax to 15 per cent and removing business rates for five years for the most in-need communities.
>There are also robust defences against criticisms sure to be thrown his way. His decision to vote Remain in the 2016 EU referendum; his lack of Treasury experience; whether he really can win a leadership race that he lost last time.
>But we start with what Mr Hunt clearly sees as a key point of difference from the others: that choice to remain outside of the tent.
>“We have to be honest that over the last year, we lost the trust of many swathes of people who voted Conservative in 2019,” he said.
>“I am the only major candidate who has not served in Boris Johnson’s government. I called out what was going wrong long before any of the other major contenders and I have not been defending the indefensible.
>“So by choosing me, the Conservative Party is sending a signal to those voters that we have listened to your concerns and we have changed. That is the most important thing we need to do now. It is to restore trust.”
>__Working from a free slate__
>The message matches the political reality. Polls of the public and Tory members suggest the drip-drip of headlines about Tory sleaze and Downing Street mistruths has eroded trust, hence why many leadership candidates are stressing their “honesty”.
>Unlike recent Cabinet ministers who must justify why they stood by Mr Johnson for so long, Mr Hunt has a free slate. It is a potential advantage he appears set to press.
>He was, though, careful not to criticise Mr Johnson directly. “This is not the moment to speak of someone who has just been brutally defenestrated,” he said, before noting achievements such as unblocking the Brexit logjam in 2019 and steering the country through Covid-19.
>It is a similar approach adopted throughout the interview. He refused to call out rival Tories explicitly, instead pivoting to the policy debates underlying the race.
>Mr Hunt, after all, is no newbie to politics. A former Charterhouse head boy and Oxford University PPE-er, he was first elected in 2005 to his current seat of South West Surrey.
>The constituency, as Mr Hunt is quick to note, is firmly Blue Wall – that is, part of the traditional Tory countryside support base that is bleeding votes under Mr Johnson.
>He has held three Cabinet posts: culture secretary; health secretary, where he served longer than any other in the role; and foreign secretary under two prime ministers, David Cameron, then Theresa May. That near-decade of Cabinet experience will be noted in his bid.
> The second central plank of Mr Hunt’s campaign will be his economic approach – what is set to be the biggest issue in the leadership race, with inflation soaring and recession looming.
>“What we need to do is to turn ourselves from a high-tax, low-growth economy, into a low-tax, high-growth economy,” he said.
>To achieve that, he proposed two business tax cuts. The first is on corporation tax. He will not just reverse the rise from 19 per cent to 25 per cent due to kick in next April, but cut the rate to 15 per cent.
>That is the lowest point allowed under a recent deal struck by the world’s leading economies. It is also the joint-lowest rate in the G20 group of nations, matching Canada.
>The move would be adopted in Mr Hunt’s first Budget, meaning this autumn, if he wins the race, and take effect next spring. The hope is it will boost economic growth.
>Mr Hunt explains: “I know from when I set up my own business as an entrepreneur, it was because Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson created a pro-business climate.
>“And that was what persuaded me to take the risks, to start from nothing with no capital, no office, no people and build up something that ended up being a success.
>“We need to start up Britain now. That means sending a signal, that in the first chapter in our post-Brexit future we’re going to be the most pro-business economy in the Western world.”
Well… That is certainly an opinion he has of himself.
I trust him about as much as someone could trust a fart after a really hot and spicy curry night!
Stayed out of it by going from minister of health to chair of health select committee.
He was just busy making sure useful idiot matt hancock did not cock up what he and simon stevens had already set the ball rolling on…
It would be nice for other countries if he became PM, it’s selfish of us to not have him as PM really.
Everyone should have the opportunity to laugh with childish glee as yet another newsreader accident calls him Jeremy Cunt.
We all thought he was a shit cunt before boris was PM.
It’s a sad day when Mr Cunt seems like a calm voice of reason after the fuckstorm of theft and delinquency of the last few years.
….. I am less of a cunt than the other cunts says cunt.
Odd that everyone hates you then.
Nice to see he’s branched out into stand up comedy.
Has he really just suggested Esther McVile will be his deputy 😬
Talk about making yourself more unelectable
He’s the cunt that architectured the decline of NHS he has strong ties to American health firms and one of strongest advocates for privatising it
I understand that many people would not necessarily fancy having a cup of tea with Jeremy Hunt.
Nor would I, necessarily, though he does seem rather more sane than any of the other Tory candidates.
However, some of the criticisms of him for his time as Health Secretary are complete nonsense and are old smears from a pay dispute.
Hunt was trying to get GPs to operate their practices at hours that suited the public and the GP’s union (I mean professional body) was dead against it.
So, a lot of muck was spread.
Maybe you agree with some of it.
Remember, though, where it came from and who was spreading it.
Jeremy Hunt last month called the fact that the NHS was now recruiting more doctors from abroad than Britain ‘morally dubious’.
What was he doing during his six years as SoS for Health to prevent this situation?
Reminder on how to bypass the Telegraph enforced login/paywall:
Go to `chrome://settings/content/javascript`
Under “not allowed to use javascript” click “add”.
Won’t work everywhere, some sites are clever enough not to actually load the content in the background, but always worth a go.
This means about as much as me saying I stayed out of the Boris bubble.
You didn’t stay out, you just weren’t invited in
Jeremy Hunt took over responsibility for the NHS in 2012. By 2018, patient experience and staff morale had collapsed. Winter crises deepened, with official figures showing 2017, 2018 and 2019 were successively “worst on record”. The British Medical Association (BMA) reported that by 2018, “the “winter crisis” bcame “a year-round crisis”. Hospitals now receive on average 10% less for treating a patient than the treatment actually costs according to former regulator, Ian Dalton. When hospitals missed financial and performance targets that the Public Accounts Committee said were ‘unrealistic’, they were fined. Unsurprisingly that has been shown to do nothing to improve performance. That is the legacy of Hunt. Not to mention the endless selling off of land and property. The only thing Hunt can be trusted to do is pilfer public property.
21 comments
>#Jeremy Hunt: ‘I can restore voters’ trust … I stayed out of the Boris bubble, after all’
>Launching his Tory leadership bid, former health secretary says not serving under the PM gives him an edge over others
>By Ben Riley-Smith, POLITICAL EDITOR
>9 July 2022 • 9:30pm
>When the end finally came, it was a relief to Jeremy Hunt.
>The former foreign secretary watched live from his parliamentary office as the Number 10 door swung open shortly after midday on Thursday and Boris Johnson called time on his premiership.
>Less than three years earlier, Mr Hunt had been the last Tory standing between Mr Johnson and Downing Street, having made the final two as the strongest “Stop Boris” candidate.
>After defeat, he turned down the offer of defence secretary, rejecting his rival’s Cabinet for the backbenches, from where he followed this week’s spectacular political implosion.
>Chatting to The Telegraph in the basement kitchen of his central London townhouse, Mr Hunt, 55, mulled over a seismic seven days in British politics.
>“I started the week desperately worried for the country and for the Conservative Party because we were rapidly losing the trust of large swathes of the electorate, including many people who voted for us,” he said.
>“We were in a situation where the country was facing paralysis; the Government wasn’t able to deliver what it promised. So I think I feel a sense of relief that that at least has been resolved.”
>__Setting his stall for Tory leadership__
>But the reason Mr Hunt talked to this title is not to look back. Instead, it was to announce the biggest decision of his recent political career: that he will, once again, run to become the next Conservative Party leader and thus the next Prime Minister.
>“It’s very straightforward why I want to do it,” he began, laying out the core themes of his pitch. “It is because we have to restore trust, grow the economy, and win the next election. Those are the three things that have to happen and I believe I can do that.”
>Over almost an hour of discussion, there are plenty of policy announcements. Most notably, a one-two punch of business tax cuts: cutting corporation tax to 15 per cent and removing business rates for five years for the most in-need communities.
>There are also robust defences against criticisms sure to be thrown his way. His decision to vote Remain in the 2016 EU referendum; his lack of Treasury experience; whether he really can win a leadership race that he lost last time.
>But we start with what Mr Hunt clearly sees as a key point of difference from the others: that choice to remain outside of the tent.
>“We have to be honest that over the last year, we lost the trust of many swathes of people who voted Conservative in 2019,” he said.
>“I am the only major candidate who has not served in Boris Johnson’s government. I called out what was going wrong long before any of the other major contenders and I have not been defending the indefensible.
>“So by choosing me, the Conservative Party is sending a signal to those voters that we have listened to your concerns and we have changed. That is the most important thing we need to do now. It is to restore trust.”
>__Working from a free slate__
>The message matches the political reality. Polls of the public and Tory members suggest the drip-drip of headlines about Tory sleaze and Downing Street mistruths has eroded trust, hence why many leadership candidates are stressing their “honesty”.
>Unlike recent Cabinet ministers who must justify why they stood by Mr Johnson for so long, Mr Hunt has a free slate. It is a potential advantage he appears set to press.
>He was, though, careful not to criticise Mr Johnson directly. “This is not the moment to speak of someone who has just been brutally defenestrated,” he said, before noting achievements such as unblocking the Brexit logjam in 2019 and steering the country through Covid-19.
>It is a similar approach adopted throughout the interview. He refused to call out rival Tories explicitly, instead pivoting to the policy debates underlying the race.
>Mr Hunt, after all, is no newbie to politics. A former Charterhouse head boy and Oxford University PPE-er, he was first elected in 2005 to his current seat of South West Surrey.
>The constituency, as Mr Hunt is quick to note, is firmly Blue Wall – that is, part of the traditional Tory countryside support base that is bleeding votes under Mr Johnson.
>He has held three Cabinet posts: culture secretary; health secretary, where he served longer than any other in the role; and foreign secretary under two prime ministers, David Cameron, then Theresa May. That near-decade of Cabinet experience will be noted in his bid.
> The second central plank of Mr Hunt’s campaign will be his economic approach – what is set to be the biggest issue in the leadership race, with inflation soaring and recession looming.
>“What we need to do is to turn ourselves from a high-tax, low-growth economy, into a low-tax, high-growth economy,” he said.
>To achieve that, he proposed two business tax cuts. The first is on corporation tax. He will not just reverse the rise from 19 per cent to 25 per cent due to kick in next April, but cut the rate to 15 per cent.
>That is the lowest point allowed under a recent deal struck by the world’s leading economies. It is also the joint-lowest rate in the G20 group of nations, matching Canada.
>The move would be adopted in Mr Hunt’s first Budget, meaning this autumn, if he wins the race, and take effect next spring. The hope is it will boost economic growth.
>Mr Hunt explains: “I know from when I set up my own business as an entrepreneur, it was because Margaret Thatcher and Nigel Lawson created a pro-business climate.
>“And that was what persuaded me to take the risks, to start from nothing with no capital, no office, no people and build up something that ended up being a success.
>“We need to start up Britain now. That means sending a signal, that in the first chapter in our post-Brexit future we’re going to be the most pro-business economy in the Western world.”
Well… That is certainly an opinion he has of himself.
I trust him about as much as someone could trust a fart after a really hot and spicy curry night!
Stayed out of it by going from minister of health to chair of health select committee.
He was just busy making sure useful idiot matt hancock did not cock up what he and simon stevens had already set the ball rolling on…
It would be nice for other countries if he became PM, it’s selfish of us to not have him as PM really.
Everyone should have the opportunity to laugh with childish glee as yet another newsreader accident calls him Jeremy Cunt.
We all thought he was a shit cunt before boris was PM.
It’s a sad day when Mr Cunt seems like a calm voice of reason after the fuckstorm of theft and delinquency of the last few years.
….. I am less of a cunt than the other cunts says cunt.
Odd that everyone hates you then.
Nice to see he’s branched out into stand up comedy.
Has he really just suggested Esther McVile will be his deputy 😬
Talk about making yourself more unelectable
He’s the cunt that architectured the decline of NHS he has strong ties to American health firms and one of strongest advocates for privatising it
[Edit he literally [wrote a book on it(link to independent newspaper website)](https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/jeremy-hunt-privatise-nhs-tories-privatising-private-insurance-market-replacement-direct-democracy-a6865306.html)]
He’s still a Tory. Never trust a Tory.
I understand that many people would not necessarily fancy having a cup of tea with Jeremy Hunt.
Nor would I, necessarily, though he does seem rather more sane than any of the other Tory candidates.
However, some of the criticisms of him for his time as Health Secretary are complete nonsense and are old smears from a pay dispute.
Hunt was trying to get GPs to operate their practices at hours that suited the public and the GP’s union (I mean professional body) was dead against it.
So, a lot of muck was spread.
Maybe you agree with some of it.
Remember, though, where it came from and who was spreading it.
Jeremy Hunt last month called the fact that the NHS was now recruiting more doctors from abroad than Britain ‘morally dubious’.
What was he doing during his six years as SoS for Health to prevent this situation?
Reminder on how to bypass the Telegraph enforced login/paywall:
Go to `chrome://settings/content/javascript`
Under “not allowed to use javascript” click “add”.
Enter [`www.telegraph.co.uk`](https://www.telegraph.co.uk) or the name of the other site you want.
Won’t work everywhere, some sites are clever enough not to actually load the content in the background, but always worth a go.
This means about as much as me saying I stayed out of the Boris bubble.
You didn’t stay out, you just weren’t invited in
Jeremy Hunt took over responsibility for the NHS in 2012. By 2018, patient experience and staff morale had collapsed. Winter crises deepened, with official figures showing 2017, 2018 and 2019 were successively “worst on record”. The British Medical Association (BMA) reported that by 2018, “the “winter crisis” bcame “a year-round crisis”. Hospitals now receive on average 10% less for treating a patient than the treatment actually costs according to former regulator, Ian Dalton. When hospitals missed financial and performance targets that the Public Accounts Committee said were ‘unrealistic’, they were fined. Unsurprisingly that has been shown to do nothing to improve performance. That is the legacy of Hunt. Not to mention the endless selling off of land and property. The only thing Hunt can be trusted to do is pilfer public property.
The only good thing about this muppet becoming PM would be many more instances of him being called [Jeremy Cunt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EmYwBHooA_M)
Deluded. Every hates him. His literal nickname is Jeremy Cunt.
I think we can all agree that Jeremy hunt is an absolute cunt