Who is Jeremy Hunt? Chancellor’s career path, net worth, and family life

Jeremy Hunt has held several of the Great Offices of State. (Picture: Tayfun Salci/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock)

Jeremy Hunt was reappointed as Chancellor of the Exchequer by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak last year, after his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng only spent 38 days in the job before being dismissed by Liz Truss.

After the chaotic response to Kwarteng and Truss’s disastrous minibudget ultimately cost both of them their jobs, Mr Hunt was retained in what was widely viewed as an attempt to provide economic stability.

After delivering an Autumn Statement back in November of last year, the Chancellor will now be presenting his first eagerly-anticipated Spring Budget to the House of Commons and the public today (March 15).

Mr Hunt is 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.

Mr Hunt is the MP for South West Surrey (Picture: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg via Getty)

Mr Hunt, 56, 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 he 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 professional 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 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.

He supported the UK remaining in the European Union during the Brexit referendum in 2016 but later supported Theresa May’s withdrawal plan.

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 ultimately 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 Mr Hunt 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)

‘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.’

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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 are rarely seen in public.

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