Jeremy Hunt: Chancellor who tried twice to win Tory crown

Get the free Morning Headlines email for news from our reporters across the world Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email Sign up to our free Morning Headlines email SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy Former chancellor Jeremy Hunt, one of the Conservative Party heavyweights who managed to hold onto his seat on election night, tried twice to become Tory leader. Sorry, that’s a terrible mistake to make.” Like Mr Johnson, the then foreign secretary refused to call then US president Donald Trump racist for telling four Democratic US congresswomen to “go back” to where they came from, even though all were American and only one was born overseas. Instead, Mr Hunt said: “I have three half-Chinese children and if anyone ever said to them ‘go back to China’, I would be utterly appalled.” Self-made millionaire Mr Hunt was a keen fan of the lambada, describing it as an “intimate dance”. When drug use briefly dominated the early stages of the leadership race, Mr Hunt volunteered: “I think I had a cannabis lassi when I went backpacking through India.” He then added “that is almost as naughty as wheat fields”, in a reference to Theresa May’s much ridiculed claim that the naughtiest thing she had ever done was run through crops in the countryside.