In public, Jeremy Hunt, who is tall and slim, with wide eyes and a boyish, grown-out buzz cut, tends to wrap his right arm across his body so as to hold his stiff left arm just above the cuff. It’s as if he were worried about the arm making rapid, involuntary movements, like something out of Dr Strangelove. His father, Sir Nicholas Hunt, was a senior Royal Navy officer, and there’s a remarkable calmness as well as something seigneurial in Hunt’s bearing and public persona.
In person, Hunt speaks precisely and maintains eye contact. Unlike Theresa May, he does not appear awkward when speaking in public or taking questions from the media. Unlike some politicians, he’s not a tyrannical monologist: he asks questions and listens. “He is considerate and remembers things about you that matter,” says Tim Montgomerie, the founder of the ConservativeHome website.
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