We must harness all talents, none more so than Jeremy Hunt
THE coronavirus pandemic shows no signs of relenting. Yesterday a grim milestone was reached as the number of deaths worldwide passed 30,000, while the disease has claimed the lives of more than 20,000 people in Europe.
A friend of mine, a brilliant biochemist currently engaged on the urgent search for a vaccine, said to me last week, “It is amazing how such a microscopic particle can wreak such global havoc in such a short period of time.”
Here in Britain, we are now approaching perhaps the lethal peak of the crisis, with the number of infections and fatalities expected to soar in the coming weeks. Despite the heroism of NHS staff and other essential workers, our society will be under the greatest strain ever seen in modern peacetime.
Therefore our Government needs to be at its most dynamic and effective. Already, the Cabinet and Whitehall have had to grapple with challenges from the supply of emergency medical equipment to the imposition of a nationwide lockdown. Those pressures are about to intensify dramatically.
YET at this very moment, the top ranks of Government are being depleted. The insidious virus is now putting key players out of action. Having tested positive for Covid-19, the Prime Minister has been forced to isolate himself, as has the Health Secretary Matt Hancock. Both the Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty and the Scottish Secretary Alister Jack have placed themselves in isolation after displaying symptoms.
All four claim that they can carry on working but their performance is bound to be affected, given how draining the virus can be. What the Government badly needs therefore is an accomplished figure to step into the breach, to help
Boris’s embattled administration as a co-ordinator.
The obvious candidate for this role is Jeremy Hunt, the current chairman of the Health Select Committee. A former long-serving Cabinet minister, he would bring a natural authority to the position.
Throughout the crisis, he has been a voice of constructiveness, using his knowledge of the NHS to press ministers for action. Yesterday, he made a typically sensible intervention as he called for Covid-19 testing regime to be “urgently” expanded. Although he agreed that “the immediate priority is to protect the NHS” he said that “mass testing can show us the way out of the crisis”.
Hunt has all the right qualities for this special task. In the past he has been criticised for his lack of charisma, as when he and Boris Johnson fought for the Tory leadership last summer.
The contest, ran one joke, was “the blond leading the bland”. But in this dark hour for our nation, we do not need celebrity stardust. We need the gifts of good organisation and calming reassurance, exactly those Hunt possesses.
His credentials as a heavyweight shine through his record as a Cabinet minister. As Culture Secretary in charge of sport, he proved his skill at administration when he presided over the Olympic Games in 2012. Where necessary, he was willing to take radical steps, such as calling in the British Army to provide security when the G4 private contractor had proved inadequate for the job.
Promoted that year, Hunt then went on to be the longestserving Health Secretary in our history. For a Conservative politician, his tenure was remarkable both for its length and his ability to defuse potential crises, as revealed in his adroit settlement of the long-running junior doctors’ dispute.
FOR all the characteristic abuse he received from the Left, Hunt also showed his genuine commitment to the NHS by working regularly as a volunteer in the front line.
His last job in Cabinet was as Foreign Secretary, where he was the embodiment of quiet but tough diplomacy. As a backbencher since 2019, he has again displayed his concern for the NHS by his establishment of the group Patient Safety Watch, which aims to use data as a means of improving care.
Hunt is a pragmatist, not an ideologue. Fiercely intelligent, he was a successful businessman before he entered politics, making a fortune through his marketing consultancy and a company which sold educational directories. Such entrepreneurship is required now as food and medical supply lines are badly over-stretched.
But Hunt was also born into a family tradition of public service. Not only was his father a Royal Navy commander, but another relative, Dame Agnes Hunt, was a pioneer of orthopaedic nursing.
He is the man for this dark hour. His return to real political responsibility would give the Government a vital boost.
‘A pragmatist not an ideologue, he has organisational gifts’