‘What you can see is someone who has the instincts of a Brexiteer, but the cautious pragmatism of a Remainer, which is where I think the British people are.’ This is how Jeremy Hunt tried to sell Theresa May’s leadership on the Andrew Marr sofa this Sunday. After a choppy few weeks for No. 10, the Health Secretary made clear that he felt May was still the right person for the job of Prime Minister.
Perhaps it’s just pure coincidence then that one could also substitute Hunt’s name with May’s in that endorsement. Like May, Hunt is a Remainer turned Brexiteer. A point he also proved on Sunday when he said that Airbus’s Brexit ‘threat’ over potential loss of jobs was ‘inappropriate’. The blunt comments were surprising given that Hunt was once seen as mild-mannered.
All of which is prompting Conservative MPs to ask: what is Hunt up to? Although a lot of (often negative) attention has been on Gavin Williamson’s leadership ambitions of late, were there a leadership election tomorrow – as we discuss on today’s Coffee House Shots podcast – the frontrunners would more likely be Hunt, Sajid Javid and Michael Gove:
Right now there is no vacancy but as one senior Tory recently told Coffee House: ‘patience is wearing thin’.
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