Jeremy Hunt has admitted he may lose his seat at the general election, telling his children that the prospect was “nothing to worry about – that’s democracy”.
The Chancellor’s former ‘blue wall’ seat of South West Surrey had a majority of just over 8,000, and Hunt, who will stand in the new constituency of Godalming and Ash, under boundary changes, told the Standard that his political future is on a “knife edge”.
Speaking separately to the Sunday Telegraph, Hunt confessed that in the wake of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling a general election on July 4, he warned his three children he may lose his job.
“I’ve had the discussion with my kids, you know, I may not be an MP after the election. And that’s nothing to worry about. That’s democracy,” he said.
The Liberal Democrats are fighting hard for seats in leafy commuter belt areas and the Tory shire strongholds of southern England in a bid to oust some of its big beasts.
But Hunt pledged the Conservatives would “defend the Blue Wall brick by brick” and warned Liberal Democrat leader Ed Davey not to expect a “Portillo moment” in South West Surrey.
“Don’t bet the farm on it,” he said to the Standard. “Jeremy Hunt is no Michael Portillo, for better or worse.
Portillo, then defence secretary, famously lost his Enfield Southgate seat in Tony Blair’s landslide win of 1997.
The Chancellor, who has faced speculation over whether he would step down ahead of the election or be replaced in his cabinet role by Sunak ally Claire Coutinho, even donated £100,000 to his local party as he prepared to campaign, as reported by the Guardian.
He insisted that according to some private polls it was “everything to play for”, with the Tories ahead “in some” and behind in others.
It comes as it emerged former Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has been donating to the local party in his former Sheffield Hallam seat, to lend support ahead of a direct fight with Labour.
According to the Financial Times, the former deputy PM, now a top executive at Meta who lost his seat to Labour in 2017, has “stepped up” his existing donations on a monthly basis.
Electoral Commission records reveal Clegg has given some £30,000 to the Lib Dems in Sheffield since he stood down – but his latest payments are yet to be published.