When Jeremy Hunt was announced as Boris Johnson’s opponent in the run-off to decide Britain’s next prime minister, the favourite’s campaign was relieved.
Mr Johnson’s allies had worried about the prospect of facing Michael Gove, the third-placed candidate, whom they saw as their most formidable foe.
Mr Hunt, the foreign secretary, is not perceived as so much of a threat — he is less charismatic, backed Remain in the 2016 EU referendum and has the support of just 11 per cent of party members, according to the ConservativeHome website. Ladbrokes, the bookmakers, give him odds of eight to one.
But Mr Hunt’s camp contends it has a trump card: what it says is its candidate’s greater trustworthiness and competence. In particular, it maintains that the next stage of the contest could expose Mr Johnson’s Brexit policy as cynically unrealistic.
One minister supporting Mr Hunt said the coming battle for the support of the party’s 160,000 members — whose decision will be announced at the end of July — would be “a competition of character, not Brexit gymnastics. The way for Hunt to win is to make people realise that Boris’ promises on Brexit won’t be delivered.”
Drawing a comparison between Mr Hunt’s nine years in three senior cabinet roles with Mr Johnson’s stint as foreign secretary, the minister added: “The Conservative party in the country tend to be people who respect competent personal qualities. They get that in spades with Hunt but not at all with Boris.”
Mr Hunt’s defining time in government came during his six years as health secretary — no minister has served in the post for longer. Although he was criticised for his handling of a bitter dispute with junior doctors, he secured a cash injection of £20bn into the National Health Service, one of the largest in its history.
Hunt supporters say that, as foreign secretary for the past year, he has proved a much safer pair of hands than his predecessor, Mr Johnson. The latter’s time in office was marked by a series of gaffes.
MPs backing Mr Hunt hope that the rest of the campaign — including more than a dozen hustings across the country and at least one televised debate — will expose their opponent’s unsuitability for the top job.
“I think that four weeks is enough for people to stop, think and appreciate what it takes to be prime minister — all the warning lights about Boris should be flashing,” one Hunt supporter said. “He’s totally unreliable, you can’t run the country through bluff and bluster.”
Mr Hunt’s other credentials include two years as culture secretary and a successful past career as an entrepreneur, founding Hotcourses.com, an education website he sold his stake in for £14.5m in 2017.
But, despite the appeal of his business career to Tory members, he remains “the underdog in this race”, according to an insider on his campaign.
“Boris is incredibly difficult to beat,” said a senior Conservative party campaigner. “I suspect Hunt will struggle to get more than 30 per cent of the vote. It could well be closer to 20.”
Mr Hunt’s greatest drawback in the eyes of the Tories’ overwhelmingly Eurosceptic membership is his support for Remain — which at one point included a flirtation with a second referendum after the 2016 vote.
He maintains that “people don’t care how you voted in a referendum three years ago . . . They want to know are you going to implement that referendum and do you have the skills. Can you be trusted as prime minister to get the right outcome?”
His supporters also hope his cautious policy of seeking to avoid a no-deal exit on the scheduled Brexit date of October 31 will prevail over Mr Johnson’s less disciplined message about leaving the EU.
In comments that many trade experts say are misleading, Mr Johnson has sought to downplay the impact of a no-deal Brexit, arguing that it would not lead to higher tariffs.
The frontrunner has also sent mixed messages over whether he is determined to avoid a further Brexit delay, saying both that the UK “must” leave the EU on October 31 and that a departure on that date is merely “eminently feasible”.
“The members are looking for someone they trust to deliver the best Brexit outcome,” Mr Hunt said on Friday. “Someone they trust to be prime minister . . . someone who the EU will talk to and negotiate with.”
Mr Johnson’s backers are not over concerned, given the front-runner’s growing momentum.
But Mr Hunt may yet play a pivotal role in holding Mr Johnson to account and nailing down specifics on how he intends to resolve Brexit.
“[Jeremy] Hunt knows perfectly well he can’t win and that the party doesn’t want a coronation,” said one senior Conservative MP. “That’s why he’s staying in; we all know Boris is going to win support of the members. It’s about making sure we get the best possible Boris.”
Some Tories remain worried that the face-off — the first such extended contest for the Tory leadership in 14 years — will cause more damage to an already warring party.
One minister expressed the hope that Mr Hunt would “act prime ministerially, putting himself in a good place for a strong job or to step in if Boris trips up.
“The problem for Jeremy is that, if he really wants to win, he would have to take big chunks out of Boris and hope that he is flawless,” the minister said. “It would also risk being a pyrrhic victory, making the party ungovernable.”
Meanwhile Mr Johnson declined to comment on reports in The Guardian about an alleged altercation at his home early on Friday morning.
