Jeremy Hunt, a self-proclaimed entrepreneur who is widely regarded as a safe pair of hands by many members of his Conservative Party, was named Britain’s new finance minister on Friday.
This is the latest senior ministerial role for the self-proclaimed entrepreneur, whose days in top jobs had seemed to be over.
Hunt, who twice failed in his attempts to become prime minister of Britain, returns to office after spending the most time in that position of any British cabinet member.
Whereas in 2019 he made it to the run-off to succeed Theresa May, ultimately losing to Boris Johnson, he fared far less well this year, when Liz Truss was elected as leader.
After being knocked out of the race, he said something along the lines of, “It’s become evident to me you only get one big shot at this, and I had mine in 2019.”
Later, he supported Truss’s opponent Rishi Sunak and was passed over for a ministerial position as Truss surrounded herself with supporters and close allies.
His predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng’s economic ideas caused havoc in the markets, but now she has turned to him to be Britain’s fourth finance minister in as many months.
Although he was successful in making it to the final round of the race to succeed Theresa May in 2019, when he was ultimately defeated by Boris Johnson, he was not nearly as successful in the race for leadership this year, which was won by Liz Truss.
