Hunt’s new secret weapon? His wife!

AS CONTENDERS START NAKEDLY VYING FOR THE LEADERSHIP...

LOVINGLY gazing into the eyes of his wife of ten years, Jeremy Hunt unveils his new diplomatic ‘weapon’ for a post-Brexit Britain.

Mr Hunt, who took over as Foreign Secretary from Boris Johnson, has just completed a 12,500-mile trip across Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya in just five days.

And by his side throughout was Lucia, who invested on the advice of friends, in some bright clothes for Africa – including lively orange trousers.

She is the first spouse of a growing field of potential Tory leadership contenders to put themselves in the limelight as her husband sets out his credentials to succeed Theresa May.

Mr Hunt was so keen for his Chinese wife to join him, that he covered the extra cost personally. Calling her a ‘great diplomatic weapon’ for the UK, he said: ‘Diplomacy is about building relationships, principally with foreigners. And Lucia happens to be a foreigner and very good at getting on with absolutely anybody. So she is the perfect foreign secretary’s wife.’

The couple, who have three children Anna, Ellie and Jack, met in 200 when Mr Hunt was a culture spokesman under David Cameron and she worked at the University of Warwick.

He was there at an event linked to his online education firm Hotcourses, which made him the richest man in the Cabinet.

‘I was on the shelf then! I was in my 40s! My clock was ticking, hers wasn’t! She had options!’ he joked. Mr Hunt proposed within a year and the couple flew to China to see her parents, who live in Xi’an. But last year in an official visit to the country, Mr Hunt infamously described his wife as ‘Japanese’ before swiftly correcting himself.

In Kenya, the Hunts visited a centre for aids orphans in Kibra which is partfunded by the charity Mr Hunt founded with his firm’s profits. Afterwards, Mrs Hunt said: ‘It was so sad, but also wonderful. It makes us so humble’.

Yesterday Mr Hunt, 52, went jogging, guiding blind Kenyan Paralympian gold medallist Henry Wanyoike. He was put through his paces over 5km in Karura Forest in Nairobi.