Who is Greg Hands’ wife Irina Hundt? We take a look at the life of the new Tory chairman

Greg Hands is the latest MP to be appointed to a new role as Rishi Sunak continues the first reshuffle of his Cabinet. Hands will take over the role as Conservative Party chairman. Hand’s new appointment comes just over a week after former chair Nadhim Zahawi was sacked over the handling of his tax affairs.

Hands is also the MP for Chelsea and Fulham, and has remained minister for the past eight years. He was first elected as an MP in 2005 for Hammersmith, and has been MP for Chelsea and Fulham since its creation in 2010. The MP also served in David Cameron’s cabinet.

Outside of his political career, Hands leads a seemingly quiet life with his wife and their two children. The family lives in Fulham.

While he rarely speaks about his personal life, Hands has been open about how, like many, the coronavirus pandemic affected his family. In 2020, he confirmed that his father died in a care home from pneumonia brought on by coronavirus. At the time, Hands was acting trade minster and paid tribute to his “brilliant grammar school scientist” father who is said was a “determined man”, adding that he will be “sorely missed”.

People will no doubt be interested to know about his family and those supporting the minister as he takes on this new role. So, who is Greg Hands wife Irina Hundt? Here’s everything we know about the new tory party chairman and his life outside of politics.

Who is Greg Hands’ wife Irina Hundt?

Irina Hundt is his wife with whom he shares a son and a daughter. She is half-German and half-Russian.

His wife, Irina Hundt, is German and in 2018 he opened up about the effect that the Brexit vote had on his family. Hands told the HuffPost: “My wife is German, my children are bilingual, and on the day of the referendum, or the day after, my son - who at the time was nine years old - cried over the result”.

Who is Greg Hands?

Hands was born in New York City to parents from the UK and lived there until he was seven years old. They returned to the UK and he completed his schooling in Amersham. He currently holds dual American and British citizenship.

Hands previously studied Modern History at Cambridge University. He first joined the Tory party during his time at university where he also served as the chairman of the Cambridge University Conservative Association.

Following his university studies, Hands went on  to work on trading floors in London and New York for eight years.

Hands is a polyglot speaking fiver European languages including Czech and Slovak. It’s been reported that he has had a passion for Eastern Europe since spending a ‘gap year’ as a pool attendant in Berlin in the last days of the Cold War.

Throughout his political career, he has served as private secretary to George Osbourne, deputy chief whip, a junior minister in the Department for International Trade then, minister for London, trade policy minister, and then business, energy and clean growth minister.

What are the issues that Greg stands for?

During the Brexit referendum campaign, Hands was a vocal remainer and was demoted to a junior minister under Theresa May’s government. Hands resigned from the cabinet in 2018 due to his opposition to Heathrow’s third runway. Boris Johnson returned him to Cabinet before promoting him.

In Liz Truss’ short-lived government he was appointed trade policy minister days before she stepped down as Prime Minister.