Hunt touts Cabinet posts to rival MPs

THE leadership plans of Jeremy Hunt are so far advanced that he has even started ‘tapping up’ potential recruits for his first Cabinet as Prime Minister, MPs have claimed.

Allies of the Foreign Secretary’s potential rivals told The Mail on Sunday that Mr Hunt has tried to remove them from the race by offering them plum jobs if he succeeds Theresa May.

Mr Hunt, 52, is regarded as having the most advanced leadership operation in the Cabinet. He is followed closely by Home Secretary Sajid Javid, who has irritated No 10 by ringing up MPs in a thinly veiled effort to drum up support.

One MP close to a rival said: ‘I know that Hunt has already started hinting at potential jobs for people, in an attempt to take competitors off of the field.

‘His main problem is that he is seen as Mrs May’s preferred successor, which is a double-edged compliment to put it mildly.’

But a source close to Mr Hunt said: ‘This is someone trying to create mischief because it is completely untrue.’

Mr Hunt is a one-nation, born-again Brexiteer, who cleaved close to David Cameron during the 2016 campaign and even briefly backed a second referendum, before tacking towards the Brexiteer wing of the Tory Party.

In recent weeks he has said that Britain could ‘flourish and prosper’ under no deal and, in an article for The Mail on Sunday, cited the example of Singapore’s low tax, low regulation economy as an inspirational role model for post-Brexit Britain.

It led influential figures in the party, including former leader Iain Duncan Smith, to argue in favour of backing Mr Hunt as leader.