Hunt’s rising star

The decision on News Corp’s take-over of BSkyB has thrust Jeremy Hunt into the spotlight. The culture secretary is many Tories’ bet to be the next leader of the party. Hunt is ambitious even by political standards: during the Brown bounce he canvassed opinion as to whether he should stand in the Tory leadership contest that would follow an election defeat, and has a John Major like ability to make factions in the party feel like he is one of them. Add to this, a good television manner and one can see why people think he’ll go far.

One of the odd things about politics is that there is no heir apparent to Cameron in the Tory party. Hague used to be considered the obvious emergency replacement. But that is no longer true. The bookies have Boris as a good bet to replace Cameron and he’d definitely attract considerable support.