Jeremy Hunt
 Jeremy Hunt      | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 1 November 1966 |
| Founder of | Hotcourses |
| Member of | Paley Media Council |
| Interest of | John Lewis |
Jeremy Hunt is a British Conservative Party politician who has been the Secretary of State for Health since 2012 and the MP for South West Surrey since 2005.
As Health Secretary, Hunt was responsible for negotiating a new contract for junior doctors which increased their basic pay but reduced the hours that qualify for premium pay, including reclassifying Saturday as "normal hours". Negotiations with the doctors' union, the British Medical Association (BMA), failed, resulting in multiple strikes in 2016.
The editor of the British Medical Journal and the BMA council chair, amongst others, said that Hunt had misrepresented research to support his claim that a lack of adequate staffing in the National Health Service at weekends had led to avoidable deaths.[1]
Contents
Voice from the North
According to Northern Voices in December 2015:
"I doubt there is anything that is more guaranteed to get the backs up of English workers than hearing some upper middle-class Tory bastard telling them that they need to work harder.
"Earlier this year at the Tory Party conference in Manchester, the multi-millionaire Health Secretary, Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt, claimed in a conference speech that low-paid workers lacked dignity and self respect and ought to graft like the Chinese 'Who put in punishing hours' in a sweatshop. Needless to say, having been born into a life of privilege, this former head boy of Charterhouse and student of Magdalen College Oxford, would know all about hard graft.
"Jeremy Hunt's own career and advancement in life, is something that seems to have been shrouded in mystery. At the Tory Party conference, Hunt claimed that his father "worked as a manager" for the NHS. Given that his father, Sir Nicholas John Streynsham Hunt, was Admiral of the Fleet in his main career, this is something of an exaggeration. After retirement, Sir Nicholas like a lot of well-connected establishment figures, became a 'quangoista', joining various hospital boards. He then became Chairman of the South West Surrey District Health Authority during 1990 to 1995 and then Chairman of Nuffield Hospitals from 1996 to 2001. For most of this time, his niece, Virginia Bottomley, was the Secretary of State for Health in a Conservative government.
Monopoly caterer
During 1998-2001, Virginia Bottomley became vice-Chair of the British Council, a body that is linked to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and which promotes British cultural interests overseas. While she was at the British Council, Jeremy Hunt, became the monopoly supplier obtaining the catering contract for his company 'Hotcourses'. As the monopoly catering supplier for the British Council, Jeremy amassed the fortune that he is so proud of today.
Until her retirement from open politics, Virginia Bottomley, had been the Conservative MP for South West Surrey. In 2005, her cousin Jeremy Hunt inherited her constituency (not quite Queen's Crawley) and stepped into her shoes becoming the new MP. Virginia was then ennobled and became Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone. She now lobbies on behalf of the private health sector and was a director of BUPA between 2007-2013.
Media Minister
After being elected to Parliament, Jeremy was appointed Minister for Media and Culture and was put in charge of adjudicating the News Corp bid for BSkyB. Jeremy had previously partnered News Corp in his educational supplies business. After being an MP for just seven years, Jeremy Hunt became Secretary of State for Health, a position that had been previously held by his cousin Virginia Bottomley.
Although he owes much of his success in life to the social class that he was born into and his social connections, the Prime Minister, David Cameron, says that it's not where you come from that really matters but where you are going. But career progress of this type, "the leg up", or some would say 'nepotism,' is something that is admired by Cameron in spite of his assertions about merit. Cameron's only job outside of politics, was when he worked for Carlton TV, a job he got by being given a leg up by his mother-in-law, Lady Annabel Astor.
We do not mean to throw any odious imputation upon the general character of either Virginia Bottomley or Jeremy Hunt, nor do we suggest that they have acted in any way illegally. However, it is intriguing how both their lives and careers have been so closely intertwined as Jeremy as followed in the footsteps of his older cousin in becoming Health Secretary and in inheriting her Surrey constituency. Nor should we be surprised at the antics of a nepotistic English ruling elite, the Tory Party, who work to defend established privilege and work for anyone with money or power.
As for working like the Chinese, Jeremy Hunt failed to mention in his speech to the Tory Party that in 2010, Apple's Foxconn plants in China issued contracts forcing workers to sign a pledge stating that they would not commit suicide due to workplace stress. Another cousin, is Tristram Hunt MP, the son of Lord Hunt.[2]
Education
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.
Event Participated in
| Event | Location(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| UK/Parliament/Voted YES to vaccine passports in 2021 | UK/House of Commons | These members of the UK Parliament voted YES to the introduction of a "vaccine" passport in 2021 |
Related Documents
| Title | Type | Publication date | Author(s) | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Document:So what actually happened in the Strait of Hormuz on 10th July? | social media post | 12 July 2019 | Oliver Tickell | The aggressive posturing of US and UK and the moves to militarise the Strait of Hormuz, taken together with US calls for regime change and other threats to the sovereignty of Iran, constitute a breach of UNCLOS Articles 19 and 39 and are thus unlawful. |
| Document:The plot to keep Corbyn out of power | blog post | 3 July 2019 | Jonathan Cook | The weaponisation of anti-semitism against Corbyn has become so normal that, even while I was writing this post, a new nadir was reached. Jeremy Hunt, the foreign secretary who hopes to defeat Boris Johnson in the upcoming Tory leadership race, as good as accused Corbyn of being a new Hitler, a man who as prime minister might allow Jews to be exterminated, just as occurred in the Nazi death camps. |
