HELLO & welcome to my weekly update no.332.Welcome to December and a very wet and windy one indeed today…perhaps appropriate as the fallout from a botched budget continues in Westminster. Locally things felt better – not least at the…
This article was published in The Telegraph on 27 November 2025.Budgets aren’t easy for chancellors because so many things are beyond your control. But being forced to make trade-offs reveals priorities. And in this Budget we saw that the…
HELLO & welcome to my weekly update no.332.Wow so much happening - lots of debate ahead of the Budget. Locally some progress on the CIL scandal and our long campaigned-for 30% increase to the National Landscape (AONB) edges nearer.…
This article was published in The Telegraph on 22 November 2025.I know first-hand how stressful putting together a Budget can be. On one occasion, flagship childcare measures had to be dropped because we couldn’t afford them. Then a week…
This article was published in the Sunday Times on 22 November 2025.The chancellor has promised us that her tax rises will be “fair”. That is usually a code for whacking them up, with those with higher incomes seeing the biggest rises.I…
This article was published in the Times on 17 November 2025. Labour must be careful not to “squeeze universities too hard” and “kill the golden goose”, Jeremy Hunt, the former chancellor, has warned.Hunt said that university spin-outs were…
HELLO & welcome to my weekly update no.331It’s just 9 days before the Budget and as someone who wanted this government to succeed (whatever we may think of its policies) it gives me no pleasure to report Sir Keir Starmer’s most disastrous…
HELLO & welcome to my weekly update no.330Parliament is on short November recess but the BBC impartiality scandal has suddenly overtaken the budget to become the main story in Westminster. Locally we have had many moving Remembrance Sunday…
This article was published in the Sunday Times on 9 November 2025. During my time as health secretary, nothing caused me more anguish than the repeated failures in NHS maternity care: the avoidable deaths of babies and mothers, the anguish…
HELLO & welcome to my weekly update no.32Back in the office after a glorious Surrey weekend including a stunning walk with Poppy on Hascombe Hill (I wouldn’t normally inflict my photography but see pics at the end). But sadly once again…
This article was published in The Telegraph on 29 October 2025. Jeremy Hunt has said it is “ridiculous” to blame the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and Tory tax cuts for Labour’s economic woes.The former Tory chancellor said Rachel…
This article was published in the Times on 28 October 2025. The Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) is reported to have dealt a hammer blow to Rachel Reeves’s numbers by downgrading its productivity forecasts for the economy. I remember…
HELLO & welcome to my weekly update no.328After a wonderful extra hour in bed with the clock change…it is now dark before you receive this email on a Monday evening. In Westminster we are debating migrant hotels and prison escapes. Locally…
This article was published in the Financial Times on 25 October 2025.Bill Clinton once said, “deal with the headlines, but never forget the trend lines”. When it comes to the November Budget, the big trend line shaping the chancellor’s…
GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.327In Westminster I was thrilled to welcome another tour from Ash and Tongham this morning where we had an excellent and lively Q & A. Locally, despite some fake news (yes we even have it in…
GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.3263 years ago tomorrow I was made Chancellor…and it nearly didn’t happen because I thought the text message I got ‘Liz Truss here please call’ was a hoax. It was a huge change for the Hunt…
Lucian Leape, a physician and renowned pioneer in patient safety, once said: “The single greatest impediment to error prevention in the medical industry is that we punish people for making mistakes.” He was right. In my experience as…
GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.325 Conference season is in full swing and Kemi Badenoch is sensibly moving the Conservative Party on from being quiet to offering solutions to the two big issues of the day: illegal…
This article was published in the Health Service Journal on 29 September 2025.In my book Zero, I tell the story of Deb Hazeldine, whose mother Ellen died in appalling circumstances at Mid Staffordshire hospital. Ellen’s experience, and her…
GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.324Lots of politics with party conferences - Labour this week and Conservatives next. Most interesting is the different approach both parties are taking to the threat from Reform: for Labour…
This article was published in the Daily Mail on 26 September 2025.It is now just over eight weeks until the Budget. Already we are being ‘softened up’ for tax rises which the Government wants us to believe are inevitable. Economists think…
This article was published on ConservativeHome on 24 September 2025. It is now all but nailed on that taxes will go up in November’s budget.The consensus is it will be by around £30 billion, about 1 per cent of GDP. Most of the focus has…
GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.323 Last week was dominated by the Trump visit - didn’t the King do us proud? It felt all the more impressive given they cannot really be soulmates, not least on Charles’ big passion, namely…
This article was published in The Telegraph on 15 September 2025. As we approach the Labour conference at the end of this month, cast a thought back to an earlier one. On a rainy Tuesday in 1976, Denis Healey hurried into the hall after…
GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.322. Westminster’s febrile mood shows no sign of abating - Angela Rayner, Peter Mandelson, now Starmer aide Paul Ovenden alongside the troubling defection of Danny Kruger to Reform. And…
GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.321. I hope you all had a brilliant summer. Last week the Hunt children returned to school via two slightly frazzled parents. And then straight back to Westminster politics with the…
GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.320 Bumper edition this week! This is the last newsletter before the summer break so lots to squeeze in. But I can’t go further without saying a huge congratulations to European Champions the…
GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.319Schools out! And nearly time for the summer break…but lots more to report before parliament finally rises. WESTMINSTER WHISPERS WATER WATER EVERYWHERE (where it shouldn’t be). Big day for…
GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.318Just over a week to go before summer recess and Westminster busy ‘bringing out the dead’ - all the announcements government departments want sorted before everyone disappears. Locally the…
GOOD AFTERNOON & welcome to my weekly update no.317Last Thursday marked one year since the people of Godalming and Ash chose me as their MP. I have never fought a harder battle and never felt more humbled by the confidence you placed in me…