Tories must re-engage with young voters, says Jeremy Hunt on Shropshire visit

The security officer receives a message in his earpiece.

"They're just coming into the station," he relays to a colleague. A few minutes later the Foreign Secretary strides into a small dining room at the rear of the clubhouse at Ludlow Racecourse, and appears to be serenity personified.

"Hi, I'm Jeremy, pleased to meet you," he says as he greets each person in the room, confidently stretching out his hand. You might think he has a lot on his plate at the moment, but he certainly doesn't show it.

It is probably that unflappability in the face of crisis which has seen Jeremy Hunt rise to one of the four great offices of state, and emerge as a front-runner in the race to succeed Theresa May as Conservative leader.

As he sinks into a brown leather chair for an interview, he explains how he spent a mini-break in Ludlow shortly after being elected to Parliament in 2005.

"I came here for a long weekend, there was no particular reason for it, I just thought I would come to Ludlow. It is a very beautiful town," he says.

He adds that he is a close friend of Ludlow MP Philip Dunne – which is just as well, as he is sitting next to him – from their time working together at the Department of Health.

Mr Hunt is in town to explain his vision for the future of the Conservative Party to party members from across Shropshire and Mid Wales. As well as Mr Dunne, Shrewsbury and Atcham MP Daniel Kawczynski and Chris Davies, who represents Brecon and Radnorshire, are also at the dinner.

"Firstly, we have got to resolve Brexit as quickly as possible," he says, briskly getting down to business. "At the moment we have a Brexit paralysis, and it overshadows everything we do as a party."

Mr Hunt, who backed Remain in the referendum, says if there is one thing the party must do now, it is deliver on the referendum result. He says that while a 'no-deal' Brexit would cause damage to the economy, staying in is not an option, and believes that most MPs – both Labour and Conservative – recognise that.

"I think the democratic risk of no Brexit is greater than the economic risk of no deal, but I do think that there will be economic consequences if we don't have a deal," he says. "I would much rather we had a deal of some sort."

He says the Government has to explore all the options when it comes to trying to break the deadlock.

"The British parliamentary system is unusual in that it is quite adversarial, but you have to talk to people with a wide range of opinions, it's what you do when you're in a hung parliament," he says.

Possibly giving a hint to how he sees the conundrum resolved, he adds: "Personally, I do hope we are able to find a way to rebuild the coalition with the DUP, because, it's difficult to see whether Labour will be entirely constructive in bringing Brexit to a conclusion."

Mr Hunt says that once the issue of Brexit is resolved, the other priority for whoever succeeds Mrs May should be making the party more attractive to young people.

"I'm 52, and that is significant because 51 is now the age at which people cross over to the Conservatives, if you are under that age you are more likely to vote Labour than Conservative. That is ridiculous, only three years ago it was 35."

Three years ago, of course, was when the EU referendum took place, and Mr Hunt says that is likely to have been a key factor in the party haemorrhaging support among younger voters.

"Young people voted much more heavily for Remain," he says.

"The best way we can win back the support of younger voters is to show them that we are the party of opportunity."

Mr Hunt says there are still too many teenagers leaving school without the basic skills they need to secure a well-paid job.

"We have focused a lot in recent years on university, now we need to focus more on further education. technical education and apprenticeship schemes," he explains.

Before entering parliament, Mr Hunt was a technology entrepreneur, a line of business which has made him a multi-millionaire. He believes that the internet – and high-speed broadband in particular – will be crucial to the future prosperity of rural counties such as Shropshire.

"I think places like Shropshire will, in about 10 years time, see a revolution where new cottage industries will spring up. People will be setting up businesses, based in their own homes, selling Chinese products to customers in Brazil. Making sure everybody has access to fast broadband will be crucial to that."

Mr Hunt was, of course, the longest-serving health secretary in history, and he says the biggest challenge he faced during his political career was the junior doctors' strike.

"That went on for longer than the miners' strike," he points out. But his term at the Department of Health also saw the long-running saga of the proposed Future Fit shake-up of hospital care in Shropshire, which has led to protests about plans to end blue-light emergency services at Telford, centring them at Royal Shrewsbury Hospital instead.

The story took a fresh twist last month when Mr Hunt's successor as health secretary, Matt Hancock, called the decision in for review.

Will the matter rumble on indefinitely, like Brexit?

"I think it will be resolved, I'm very confident it will be resolved. The important thing was getting the £312 million from the NHS, which Philip and Daniel Kawczynski worked very hard to secure.

"I think what people will see, a few years from now, is that while the way the treatments are delivered will be different, the quality of care will only get higher and higher."