Will the real Jeremy Hunt please stand up

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Regardless of any political affiliations, which I have never stated on here and will aim to continue to not raise on here, it would be fair to say that Jeremy Hunt has long ranked as one of my least liked and least trusted politicians. In my eyes he has been happy setting himself up as the poster boy for many of the Conservatives more controversial policies.

Yet in recent months he, at least on the surface, appears to have been victim of the body snatchers and is now forging an entirely different agenda.

Hunt has often had various levels of controversy follow him. Accusations of nepotism, bias, improper conduct were all present during his tenure as Culture Secretary. Now as Health Secretary he has over seen huge cuts in the NHS, strikes, worsening of services, weekend working, cuts to pay, cuts to numbers, and so much more leaving the NHS in a very perilous and concerning position.

In the last couple of months however, Jeremy Hunt has pledged an additional £1bn to the NHS, committed here to the additional 21,000 mental health staff within the NHS, wants NHS to help remove damp from homes to improve health. He now backs the end of the pay cap on NHS workers and other public workers – and these aren’t just words, he has voted this way in parliament.

I won’t go through his full history in detail, however it seems clear to me his agenda has long been to drive the NHS into the ground to make privatisation of the NHS more palatable to the electorate – a policy for which I have no doubt he and other senior ministers would benefit greatly from financially. I have also long thought his approach to his career is to do what the government wants, show willing, rise up the ranks by getting done what they want done, rather than what he wants done or particularly believes in.

The conclusion here can only really be, that no, it isn’t the body snatchers, or some sudden development of an entirely new personality and belief system, but sensing the weakness in our current Prime Ministers position, he has aspirations of being PM and wants to start offering a new face and new vision to us, the electorate.

He wants to stop being blamed for everything, start to be seen as more caring as that is required for him to have any hope of replacing Theresa May. Clearly this is better than the old version, however does not speak much of principles and deep seated political beliefs which I do believe to be vital, yet almost always lacking in todays politicians of all parties.

So the old Jeremy Hunt and the new Jeremy hunt are undoubtedly the same person, it’s just he has switched his attention from appealing to those inside Downing Street, to those outside of it.