Rt Hon Lord Hunt of Wirral, PC, MBE was member of Parliament for Wirral after winning a by-election in 1976. The seat was broken up and David Hunt became Member of Parliament for the new Wirral West constituency in 1983. He held the seat until 1997.
He has been a member of the Privy Council since 1990. From 1979 to 1995 he was a member of the UK Government, including Cabinet posts as Secretary of State for Wales, Secretary of State for Employment and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster. He was Treasurer of the Queen’s Household from 1987 to 1989. He stepped down from the Cabinet after 5 years in July 1995 and was made a life peer in 1997.
Lord Hunt was senior partner at the national law firm Beachcroft Wansbroughs (now Beachcroft LLP) between 1996 and 2005. He is now chairman of the firm’s financial services division and is regarded as a major figure in the world of insurance and financial services. On certain Bills he used to occasionally step back up to the opposition front bench in the House of Lords, on an ad hoc basis. On 7 October 2008, David Cameron formally appointed him to the front bench to shadow Peter Mandelson in the House of Lords on Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform matters.
Hunt was awarded an honorary Doctor of Laws degree by the University of Bristol on 21 February 2008. He is vice-president of the Holocaust Educational Trust.