Our focus must be the economy, says Hunt
Rival candidate also sets out plan for new Treason Act and aims to mobilise younger voters
When Jeremy Hunt was elected to face Boris Johnson in the final round of the Conservative leadership campaign, it was claimed that he had received an artificial boost from the former foreign secretary’s supporters.
Michael Gove and Sajid Javid were seen by Mr Johnson’s camp as greater threats to their preferred candidate, with Mr Hunt allegedly too mildmannered and lacking in radical ideas to pose any significant threat.
Now the 52-year-old insists that he has proved his detractors wrong, by turning a “coronation” into a “contest”, which he insists he could yet win.
Today, in an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, he reveals radical plans for a new Treason Act that would introduce life sentences for those who join or aid groups such as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), with which UK forces are engaged in combat.
The proposal, which he says would lead to “proper punishment” for those “plotting against Britain”, is one of the most-eye catching of Mr Hunt’s campaign, which has also included a £20billion no-deal Brexit “war chest” to turbocharge the economy.
In the meantime, Theresa May has been attempting to push through “legacy” policies, including a £27billion increase in education spending. She has faced opposition from Philip Hammond on the basis that such a move would limit the ability of her successor to deliver on their own spending and tax cuts plans. Mr Hunt indicates that he agrees with the Chancellor.
“I haven’t seen any of these proposals and obviously I’m in the Cabinet,” Mr Hunt says, hinting that Mrs May has yet to seek the view of her senior ministers on the plan – let alone her possible successors. He adds: “I wouldn’t want my hands to be tied, but I’d like to see any proposals before I make any judgment.”
The MP, who has spent much of the campaign highlighting his experience as an entrepreneur, insists he “trusts” Mr Johnson, who has “a huge contribution to make to British politics”. But asked where Mr Johnson’s skills may exceed his own, he simply states: “I think he’s definitely better at entertaining people. That’s always been his great gift ... But what people are looking for now, more than anything, is a prime minister who will lead us out of the constitutional crisis that we’re in. And that means a serious person for serious times.”
In recent weeks Mr Hunt has used Twitter with gusto to project his policy ideas, make regular jokes at Mr Johnson’s and his own expense, answer questions from members of the public and even, at one stage, challenge his leadership rival to a mud wrestling match. Now he calls on more young Conservatives to make use of
the platform to “fly the flag” for the party and its values, doing so en masse to counter online “trolling” from far-Left activists. “Sometimes to be a Conservative on social media is quite a lonely experience, and you can get so much trolling from Momentum supporters. I think we’ve got to come together to counteract that.”
Last week Mr Hunt faced a major backlash from MPs after telling The Telegraph’s Chopper’s Brexit Podcast that he would support a vote on repealing the fox hunting restrictions.
He later insisted that such a move would not be a priority if he became prime minister, as he battled to shift public focus away from his remarks.
Three days later the issue is clearly not far from his mind as he describes the support he been receiving from young party members. “What I think is so exciting now is we’re starting to see young Conservatives coming forward, they’re overwhelmingly Hunt supporters,” he claims, before adding hurriedly: “As in Jeremy Hunt.”
“... and they are very, very keen to get out there and make the argument for Conservative values as being the brightest future for young people.” The support of young people for the next Tory leader is “incredibly important”, not least to counter the threat posed by Jeremy Corbyn. “The reason Corbyn was successful at the last election was because of his huge attraction to younger voters.
“I’ve been outlining policies that are going to help us reach younger voters, including cutting the interest rates on tuition fee loans, a plan to help one and a half million younger people get onto the housing ladder, plans for climate change.” However it is not Mr Corbyn’s spending plans but his approach to anti-Semitism that Mr Hunt says is the “single biggest” reason the Labour leader “should never be allowed into No10”.
Mr Hunt’s priority, he says, would be the economy. “I think we should learn from what President Trump did in the US where he introduced dramatic tax cuts that have given America a growth rate more than double ours. If we had American levels of growth we’d have an extra £20billion to spend on public services.”
The economy will become a litmus test of Brexit’s success, says Mr Hunt. “In 10 years’ time, the world will be giving its verdict on Brexit, and if our economic growth outperforms other European countries people will say it has been a success, and if we’ve lagged [behind] other European countries people will say it hasn’t.”
Mr Hunt claims that Brexiteers have been switching away from Mr Johnson “because they are recognising that the safest and quickest way to leave the European Union is to send a prime minister to Brussels who has a chance of negotiating a deal, who the Europeans will engage with”.
Mr Hunt warns pro-EU colleagues against attempting once again to remove the option of a no-deal Brexit.
“The best way to make sure that we leave with a deal is to give our prime minister the strongest possible negotiating hand.
“I would appeal to all my Conservative colleagues, not to take no deal off the table. Because in the end, that is more likely to provoke than prevent a disorderly Brexit.”
‘The best way to make sure that we leave [the EU] with a deal is to give our prime minister the strongest possible negotiating hand’