Jeremy Hunt is a British politician and the current Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom. He has served as Member of Parliament for South West Surrey since 2005, and was previously Health Secretary from 2012 to 2018.
Hunt first became actively involved in cryptocurrency when he accepted a £50,000 donation towards his campaign fund from blockchain entrepreneur Peter Smith during the 2019 Conservative Party leadership election. Following this donation, Hunt pledged to make Britain “the global centre for technology and finance” by launching a new government body that would be dedicated to exploring ways blockchain technology could help improve public services.
In October 2019, Hunt also attended an event hosted by Blockchain UK at 10 Downing Street in London where he discussed further plans for developing innovative solutions using distributed ledger technologies (DLTs). During his speech at this event, Jeremy Hunt highlighted how DLT-based systems have potential applications across many sectors such as healthcare, education and energy supply chains. He said: “I am looking forward to seeing what ideas emerge which can revolutionize our society for the better with these new technologies”.
As part of his efforts to promote cryptocurrency use within Britain’s digital economy, Jeremy Hunt announced additional funding measures on December 26th 2020 which included tax reliefs and incentives aimed at encouraging businesses operating within the crypto sector. The aim of this initiative is twofold; firstly it aims to encourage more people into taking up cryptocurrency investments despite existing volatility issues associated with them; secondly it will provide support towards those working hard on creating innovative solutions based on blockchain technology which could potentially generate significant economic benefits in future years.
