Following Johnson's resignation amid a government crisis in July 2022, Hunt launched a second leadership bid, but was eliminated in the first ballot of Conservative MPs.

[4] He then studied philosophy, politics and economics at Magdalen College, Oxford, graduating with a first class honours Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree.

Hunt had been interested in creating a 'guide to help people who want to study rather than just travel abroad'[15] and, together with Elms, founded a company known as Hotcourses in the 1990s, a major client of which is the British Council.

[35] In April 2012, The Daily Telegraph disclosed that Hunt had reduced his tax bill by over £100,000 by receiving dividends from Hotcourses in the form of property which was promptly leased back to the company.

[37][38] Following a series of scandals concerning phone hacking, a House of Commons motion was planned that called on News Corporation to abandon the bid.

Emails released to the Leveson Inquiry detailed contacts between Hunt's special advisor Adam Smith and Frédéric Michel,[40] News Corporation's director of public affairs and therefore a lobbyist for James Murdoch.

Hunt said Lord Justice Leveson should be able to investigate and rule on the accusations and requested the earliest date possible to give evidence to the Inquiry to set out his side of the story.

Whatever he had said, both publicly and in private, about News Corporation or the Murdochs, as soon as he was given the responsibility for dealing with the bid the evidence demonstrates a real desire on his part to get it right.

[61] During his tenure Hunt pursued an ambitious agenda to address patient safety,[62] regional variations in premature deaths,[63] health tourism[64] and A&E waiting times.

[69] In a major break from a policy previously favoured by Conservative and Labour governments, Hunt declared patient choice was not key to improving NHS performance.

[78] Following a pre-election report in April 2015 that hospital chiefs shared an average 6% pay rise totalling £35 million, Hunt promised to investigate if the Conservatives won the election.

[84][85][86] In December 2015, an undercover Daily Telegraph investigation showed that in some cases locum agencies, Medicare and Team24 owned by Capita were charging some hospitals higher fees than others and giving false company details.

Hunt criticised those who sought "big profits" at the expense of the NHS and taxpayers and promised to "reduce the margins rip-off agencies are able to generate.

After the result that supported Brexit was announced, Hunt suggested a second referendum on the terms of any exit deal with him personally backing one in which the UK would stay in the Single Market.

[95] In April 2018, The Daily Telegraph reported that Hunt breached anti-money laundering legislation by failing to declare his 50 per cent interest in a property firm to Companies House within the required 28 days.

[102][103][104] In October 2015, Hunt was accused by the editor of The BMJ, Fiona Godlee, of repeatedly misrepresenting a study published in the journal on the weekend effect.

[108] NHS Medical Director Bruce Keogh, a co-author of the study, said in response to Hunt's comments, "It is not possible to ascertain the extent to which these excess deaths may be preventable".

It highlighted the seven-day NHS could cost an additional £900 million each year, required the recruitment of 11,000 more staff including 4,000 doctors and 3,000 nurses, and community and social services could struggle to handle more discharges at the weekend.

[126][127][128] In September 2015, the British Medical Association (BMA) said they would not re-enter negotiations unless Hunt dropped his threat to impose the contract and balloted their members for industrial action.

[156] He acknowledged there would be "considerable dismay" and announced an urgent inquiry led by Academy of Medical Royal Colleges chair Susan Bailey into junior doctors' morale and welfare.

[163] Hunt said "My principal job at a time of massive importance for our country is to stand four square behind the Prime Minister so that we can get through an agreement with the European Union based on what was agreed by the Cabinet last week at Chequers.

He said that it would be "incredibly challenging economically" and that "It would lead to a fissure in relations which would be highly damaging for that great partnership that we have had for so many years, which has been so important in sustaining the international order.

In August 2018, he defended Britain's alliance with Saudi Arabia after a bomb dropped on a school bus in Yemen killed 51 people, including 40 children, although he said he was "deeply shocked" at the deaths.

"[167] In February 2019, he urged Germany to lift ban on arms sales to Saudi Arabia and warned that Germans are risking "a loss of confidence in Germany's credibility as a partner",[168] although he admitted: "Over 80,000 children [in Yemen] have died of starvation, there are about a quarter of a million people starving at the moment, and around 20 million people don't have food security – they don't know whether they're going to be able to get the food they need in the days ahead.

[177][178] While on a February 2019 Brexit-related visit to Ljubljana, he caused anger by congratulating his hosts on "making really remarkable transformation from a Soviet vassal state to a modern European democracy."

[179][180] In November 2018, Hunt threatened the United Arab Emirates with "serious diplomatic consequences" after it sentenced British research student Matthew Hedges to life in prison for allegedly spying for the UK.

[182] Following the April 2019 arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London's Ecuadorian Embassy, Hunt thanked the Ecuadorean President Lenín Moreno for his cooperation.

[194] His book, Zero: Eliminating unnecessary deaths in a post-pandemic NHS, argues for "candour, a no-blame culture and a sincere determination to treat every mistake as an opportunity to learn how to do better next time".

[200] Following the dismissal of Kwasi Kwarteng on 14 October 2022 due to the September 2022 mini-budget, Hunt was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer by Prime Minister Liz Truss.

[202] On 18 October, Tory MP Sir Roger Gale stated "Jeremy Hunt is de facto prime minister at the moment".