Jeremy Hunt, English businessman and politician, Secretary of State for Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (born 1 November 1966) is a British politician serving as Chair of the Health and Social Care Select Committee since 2020. He previously served in the Cabinet as Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from 2010 to 2012, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care from 2012 to 2018, and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from 2018 to 2019. A member of the Conservative Party, he has been Member of Parliament (MP) for South West Surrey since 2005.
The son of a senior officer in the Royal Navy, 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. He 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. Hunt served in the Coalition Government as Culture Secretary and Minister for the Olympics from 2010 to 2012, where he led the drive for local TV, resulting in Ofcom awarding local TV broadcasting licences in respect of several cities and towns. Hunt also oversaw the 2012 London Olympics, which received widespread acclaim.
Hunt served as Secretary of State for Health, later Health and Social Care, from 2012 to 2018. He served under both Cameron and May premierships and became the longest-serving Health Secretary in British political history on 3 June 2018. During his tenure, he oversaw the imposition of a controversial new junior doctors' contract in England after a dispute in which junior doctors undertook multiple strikes, the first such industrial action for 40 years.
Following the resignation of Boris Johnson over the Chequers Agreement, Hunt was appointed Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs in July 2018. He was a candidate in the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election, finishing second to Johnson. He resigned following Johnson's election as leader and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom on 24 July 2019.