In the five years and 275 days in which Jeremy Hunt has served as health secretary, the Conservative politician’s name has for some become cockney rhyming slang for a four-letter word beginning with c. Some don’t even bother to stick to that. A host of newsreaders – from the Today programme to Sky News – have managed to simply use Hunt’s crude alternative – before going on to apologise profusely for their slip of the tongue.
Whether a Freudian slip or not, it’s safe to say that Hunt’s time in the post hasn’t been plain sailing. Under his reign, we have seen the first all-out strikes by medical staff in NHS history, lengthening waiting times for cancer care as well as accident and emergency, and most recently – to use Hunt’s own words – “probably the worst ever” NHS winter crisis.
Yet despite all this, today Hunt has cause for celebration. Yesterday he became the longest serving health secretary in British history. Hunt overtakes Margaret Thatcher’s health minister, Norman Fowler, having sped past Aneurin Bevan– the man responsible for setting up the NHS – back in February.
How has this unlikely figure managed to last so long in such a tricky brief? When Hunt was first appointed by David Cameron to take over from Andrew Lansley as health secretary in 2012, it was at a time of great difficulty. Lansley’s health reforms were unpopular and Cameron hoped that in Hunt – a man who had recently survived the Leveson inquiry as culture secretary – he had not only a competent minister but a PR man who could set out a clear vision for the NHS.
Hunt found that vision in the Stafford hospital scandal of the late 2000s, which saw high mortality rates and poor care. After the scandal – and the report into the errors that had been made – Hunt made patient safety his focus. That might have seemed a non-controversial aim but the way in which he approached it soon angered lots of health workers.
Many NHS staff felt his approach was to see them as the problem rather than the solution. As they were working on a tight budget under his government and many were going without a pay rise, relations soon soured.
The situation was most fraught in 2015 in the midst of the junior doctor row. Hunt’s criticism of a “Monday to Friday” culture meant his hope for a seven-day NHS was seen more as a criticism of the current situation than an aspiration that everyone could get on board with. The hashtag #ImInWorkJeremy trended as NHS workers took umbrage at the insinuation they were workshy. There were points when it seemed the backlash might end Hunt’s career.
Since then, however, a lot has changed. Theresa May is now prime minister, the Tories have lost their majority and Brexit dominates Whitehall. Somehow Hunt has managed to take on what look like problems and advance his own standing. After the disastrous snap election, May attempted to move Hunt to a different cabinet brief. However, the seemingly amiable politician simply said no and refused to move.
Still in place, Hunt has been rebranded as a polite rebel. For all the anger from NHS staff towards him, he is now their best hope of increased funding. It is Hunt who has been leading calls for a new funding package for the NHS to mark its 70th anniversary – whether in private meetings or on Sunday morning political TV shows.
But it looks as though his efforts are working. There are plans from No 10 to mark the NHS’s birthday in July with a settlement of 3% extra a year. What’s more, Hunt, too, appears to be attempting to heal old wounds. On his milestone yesterday, he appeared to strike a modest note – tweeting that NHS staff’s career trajectories are more noteworthy than his: “Thanks #NHS for being extraordinary in so many ways: much more impressive than a long serving Health Sec are the staff who have devoted 10, 15 or 20+ yrs to patients.”
Thanks to Hunt’s influence and durability, attention is turning inevitably to whether he could be the next Tory leader. Not everyone is so keen. Aside from junior doctors, one cabinet minster tells me that if he were to go all the way and become prime minister, he would resemble a cross between Ted Heath and Harold Macmillan. Given that Heath’s single-mindedness was often seen as arrogance and Macmillan a leftie among some Tories, that’s no compliment. But bearing in mind Hunt’s less than auspicious start as health secretary and where he is now, it would be foolish to rule it out.
• Katy Balls is the Spectator’s political correspondent