The next PM? The time will come to talk about this, says Jeremy Hunt | Policy

JEremy Hunt's journey through Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Kenya was a chance for the future British Prime Minister to learn more about Africa – and for us to learn more about him.

The Foreign Minister's visit was ambitious in terms of mileage and scale, punctuated by meetings with presidents, helicopter tours in Maiduguri – Boko Haram harbor in northeastern Nigeria – speeches at the headquarters of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs African Union, seminars with civil society and photo shoots.

Meticulously planned, he ended with a visit to the HIV charity that he helped fund in Kibera, Nairobi's slums, with his company's income. He is welcomed as a long lost friend and the honorable Jeremy. Children speak eloquently to her about the stigma of HIV.

The themes of the visit are also vast: climate change, the demographic explosion of Africa, the displacement of the jihadist front line from Syria to Lake Chad, the freedom of the media and the role of modern authoritarian China on the continent.

Around the world, there is the backdrop of Brexit and the striking news of the house of the Secretary of Defense's dismissal. The news came to him when he landed in Ethiopia, dispelling a hint of suspicion of his flight from the National Security Council sanctuary.

It's a test of Hunt's balance and depth. During the week, some pieces are put in place.

He will not talk about leadership – "there will be a time for that" – but this man is certainly running. The very fact that his Chinese wife Lucia Guo accompanied him, the two men leaving behind their three young children for a week, is a clue.

Guo has already made trips with him to the G7 in France, but this is his first long exposure to public life and perhaps his first online coloring experience at Mail Online.

Hunt knows that in the face of a likely opponent of Boris Johnson whose only known virtue is his personality, he must be more than a technocrat in cold blood, sometimes clumsy. His smile and big eyes are not enough.

Guo confers not only an unchanged charisma on his stiffness, but also a certain informality, joking about being awake for hours at 2 am by the amplified Ethiopian Christians singing in a church just outside of the Commissioner's residence in Addis Ababa. Hunt says of his wife: "She is doing a great job keeping me relaxed for a very busy week and is also a valuable diplomatic badet."

I think the qualities that made Hunt one of the great survivors of the Cameron era – he seems calm, thoughtful, read and easy – seem out of step with our angry populist era.

He looks caught off guard, points out that the Foreign Office is talking about alliances and not bravado, and then adds, "It was only in 2015 that David Cameron – somebody else. one to whom many of these words could have been used – managed to get a majority and he deserved it. It offered better public services, it was turning the British economy despite the worst financial crisis since the war. It's about delivering. "

He insists that Brexit has obscured the way people perceive the Conservative Party. "Yes, we are determined to hold the Brexit, but when I was Health Secretary, we had announced an additional £ 200 billion envelope for health services – one of the largest increases ever. funding for a public service in our history – so it's a conservative party that: is firmly rooted in the central ground.

"People are angry and bored with Brexit," he says. "They want politicians who listen and people are very wary of politicians who seem detached."

An ability to engage is one of his qualities. At a roundtable on climate change held in the stifling botanic gardens of Abuja, he looked at his interlocutors in the eye and carefully noted points in a small notebook. His questions are very straightforward – concerning data on desertification in the western Sahel, or disputes between pastoralists and livestock breeders – and, in the end, he puts the notebook down and says, "Well, you m & You gave orders.

Son of a lord of the seas, he has something a little military. Hunt's call to the harmful culture of leaks within the firm gives the real impression: "Total honesty in private and total loyalty in public".

He also has an orderly spirit, reflecting in each department the added value the minister can bring. In the field of health, he remembers that, for three years, patient safety was a problem for the other ills that the NHS suffered. He wanted to return more generally after his retirement from politics.

At the Foreign Office, he developed the themes of media freedom and the persecution of Christians. He is himself an Anglican, but he is asked if he prays, but it is a private matter. He has been criticized for adopting small problems, but does not share this view and says that the Foreign Office has facilities to raise neglected problems that resonate, that it is about badual violence, of modern slavery or freedom of the media.

In the conference room of the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, built by China and built by China, he spoke at a major day devoted to freedom of the press.

His theme was that true political stability did not come from the barrel of the weapon, but from the freedom of the pen and the integrity of the ballot box. The content of the speech was strong, but no effort was made to warm his mainly African audience. In the end, during a brief question-and-answer session, he was immediately challenged to find out why, if Britain was so determined to end authoritarianism, was keeping abad of issues. excellent relationships with media butchers such as Turkey and Egypt. There was applause. He did not flinch, saying that it was an excellent question and adding: "We are extremely concerned that there are more journalists in prison in Turkey than anybody else. which other country ".

It was necessary to convince that true stability stemmed from strong democratic institutions and from a bloodless transfer of power, he said. "The politics of strong men in countries such as Sudan and Algeria brings some stability for a certain period. But when the strong man goes away, God knows what will happen.

Later, he develops: "I want to promote social development alongside economic development. Both are inextricably linked. By social development, I mean the development of democratic institutions. In Senegal, power has changed chiefs three times and Ghana four times. Investing in strong democratic institutions ultimately leads to stability. This is not only the need for dignity of citizens, it leads to stability.

"Britain needs to reshape our relationship with Africa. So, while aid is a very important part of our commitment to Africa and the commitment of 0.7%, it is no longer the focal point, because there is a new Africa radically different from the image. Bob Geldof's Live Aid that a lot of Britons have. They are dynamic entrepreneurs, technology parks, huge investments in cities and huge skyscrapers, and we have to be part of it.

"All the African leaders I met worried about how they would find jobs for young people because of this huge number. By 2040, one in 10 children will be born in Nigeria.

"These leaders are turning to the UK and say" you have the city of London, one of the world's most favorable business cultures and an unenviable economic record in terms of job creation. " must change the way we help.