Michael Portillo

The Right Honourable Michael Portillo
Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
In office 1 February 2000 – 18 September 2001
Leader	William Hague
Preceded by	Francis Maude
Succeeded by	Michael Howard
Secretary of State for Defence
In office 5 July 1995 – 4 May 1997
Prime Minister	John Major
Preceded by	Malcolm Rifkind
Succeeded by	George Robertson
Secretary of State for Employment
In office 20 July 1994 – 5 July 1995
Preceded by	David Hunt
Succeeded by	Gillian Shephard
Chief Secretary to the Treasury
In office 11 April 1992 – 20 July 1994
Preceded by	David Mellor
Succeeded by	Jonathan Aitken
Personal details
Born	(1953-05-26) 26 May 1953 Bushey, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Political party	Conservative
Website	www.michaelportillo.co.uk

Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo (born 26 May 1953) is a British journalist, broadcaster, former Conservative Party politician and Cabinet Minister.

Early life and career

Born Michael Denzil Portillo in Bushey in Hertfordshire, England, Portillo took the name Xavier at confirmation. His father was an exiled Spanish republican, Luis Gabriel Portillo, and his mother, the former Cora Blyth, is of Scottish extraction. An early brush with fame came in 1961 at the age of 8, when Portillo starred in a television advertisement for Ribena, a blackcurrant cordial drink. He was educated at Harrow County School for Boys and then won a scholarship to Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he came under the influence of Maurice Cowling.

Portillo graduated in 1975 with a first-class degree in history, and after a brief stint with Ocean Transport and Trading Co., a freight firm, he joined the Conservative Research Department in 1976. Following the Conservative victory in 1979 he became a government adviser. He left to work for Kerr-McGee Oil from 1981–1983 and fought his first, unsuccessful, election in the 1983 general election, in the Labour-held seat of Birmingham Perry Barr, losing against Jeff Rooker.

Portillo married Carolyn Eadie in 1982; they have no children.

Member of Parliament

He returned to advisory work for the government and in December 1984 he stood for and won the Enfield Southgate by-election following the murder of the incumbent, Sir Anthony Berry, in the bombing by the IRA of the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England.

Portillo retained the Enfield Southgate seat until 1997. Initially he was a Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Moore and then an assistant whip. In 1987 he was made under secretary for Social Security, in 1988 he was given his first ministerial post as Minister of State for Transport. He then held the local government portfolio (1990), arguing in favour of the ultimately highly unpopular Community Charge system (popularly known as Poll Tax). He demonstrated a consistently right-of-centre line (exemplified by his insistence, in a well-publicised speech, of placing 'clear blue water' between the policies of the Conservatives and other parties) and was favoured by Norman Tebbit and Margaret Thatcher. His rise continued under John Major; he was made a Cabinet Minister as Chief Secretary to the Treasury (1992), and admitted to the Privy Council the same year. Portillo subsequently held the portfolios of Employment (1994) and then Defence (1995-1997). His high profile led to constant attention from the media, including the magazine Private Eye, which mocked him as Portaloo.

The Defence Secretary job was seen by some as a reward for his cautious loyalty to Major during the leadership challenge of John Redwood, following Major's 'back me or sack me' resignation as party leader in 1995. Portillo was urged by many to stand himself against Major, and some embarrassment was incurred when it transpired that a potential campaign HQ with banks of telephone lines had been set up. Portillo was to admit later that this was an 'error' - 'I did not want to oppose [Major], but neither did I want to close the possibility of entering a second ballot if it came to that.' Portillo's apparent equivocation at this time was later seized on by his opponents within the party as a mark of his indecisiveness.

As Defence Secretary Portillo opposed the admission of homosexuals to the Armed Forces. He also invited criticism by invoking the motto of the SAS, "Who Dares, Wins", at a speech at the Conservative Party annual conference.

1997 election defeat

Portillo's loss of the Enfield Southgate seat in the 1997 general election to Stephen Twigg came as a shock to many politicians and commentators, and came to symbolise the extent of the Conservatives' defeat. Memorably, he was interviewed by Jeremy Paxman on the election night prior to the calling of his own seat and was stumped by the question of 'Are we seeing the end of the Conservative Party as a credible force in British politics?'. Portillo has since admitted that he knew he had lost his seat by the time of the interview:

'I saw that the exit poll was predicting a 160 seat majority for Labour. I thought, "when is Paxman going to ask me have I lost my seat?", because I deduced from that that I had. I then drove the car to my constituency and I knew I'd lost. But I also saw David Mellor. David Mellor had this really bad tempered spat with Jimmy Goldsmith [after the Putney election results had been announced]. I saw this and I thought if there's one thing I do when I lose, I'm going to lose with as much dignity as I can muster and not be like this David Mellor, Goldsmith thing.'

Photographs and film coverage of Portillo's speech after the count have become iconic in symbolising the end of the period of Conservative government which had begun under Margaret Thatcher in 1979. Portillo's defeat represented a 17.4% swing to Labour. Although Twigg retained the seat with an increased majority in 2001, it returned to the Conservative Party in 2005 with a swing of 8.7%.

Return to the House of Commons

After the election, Portillo renewed his attachment to Kerr McGee but also undertook substantial media work including programmes for the BBC and Channel 4. He also seemed to be moving in his expressed opinions more towards the centre-right.

Portillo (left) being interviewed by Nick Robinson in 2001

In an interview with The Times given in the summer of 1999, Portillo admitted to previous homosexual encounters. A few weeks after he had given this interview, the death of Alan Clark gave Portillo the opportunity to return to Parliament, despite Lord Tebbit accusing Portillo of lying about the extent of his sexual "deviance". Nonetheless Portillo comfortably won the by-election in late November 1999 to represent Kensington and Chelsea, traditionally one of the safest Conservative seats.

On 1 February 2000, William Hague promoted Portillo to the Shadow Cabinet as Shadow Chancellor. On 3 February Portillo stood opposite the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, in the House of Commons for the first time in his new role. During this session, Portillo made two significant announcements:

• The next Conservative Government will respect the independence of the Bank of England and will legislate to enhance that independence and increase accountability to Parliament.
• The next Conservative Government will not repeal the national minimum wage.

Both of these policies were flagship policies of New Labour and were opposed by large factions of the Conservative Party when introduced and indeed up until Portillo's announcement. Commentators suggested this was an example of Portillo taking the initiative in terms of Conservative Party policy and was the first step towards increasing acrimony between Hague and his shadow Chancellor.

Bid for party leadership and retirement from politics

Main article: Conservative Party (UK) leadership election, 2001

Following the 2001 general election Portillo contested the leadership of the party. In the first ballot of Conservative MPs, he led well. However there followed an onslaught of attacks from the right-wing press (notably the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail), including veiled (and not-so-veiled) references to his previous homosexual experiences and to his equivocation at the time of Major's 1995 resignation. He was knocked out in the final round of voting by Conservative MPs, leaving party members to choose between Iain Duncan Smith and Kenneth Clarke. When Duncan Smith was elected leader, Portillo returned to the backbenches. In March 2003, he voted in favour of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. In November 2003, having turned down an offer of a Shadow Cabinet post from the incoming Conservative leader Michael Howard, Portillo announced that he would not seek re-election and he left the House of Commons at the 2005 general election.

Company directorship

In September 2002 Portillo became a non-executive director of the defence company BAE Systems plc. He stepped down from that position in March 2006 owing to potential conflicts of interest.

Media career

From 2002 onwards, Portillo has developed an active career in media, both as a commentator on public affairs and as a writer and/or presenter of TV and radio documentaries.

Since 2003, Portillo has appeared in the BBC weekly political discussion programme This Week with Andrew Neil and the Labour MP Diane Abbott. Portillo has known Abbott for many years: they both attended schools in the London Borough of Harrow, Portillo and Abbott were in a joint school production of Romeo and Juliet, though not in the title roles. Later, whilst still at school, Portillo cast Abbott in a film version of Macbeth, but the film was never completed. The chemistry between Portillo and Abbott has been credited with ensuring the programme's popularity.

Portillo has featured in a number of television documentaries, including one on Richard Wagner, of whose music he is a notable fan, and two on Spain: Great Railway Journeys: From Granada to Salamanca for BBC Two (2002), and a programme on Spanish wildlife for BBC Two's The Natural World series (2006) - Portillo is a fluent Spanish speaker. He showed an unexpectedly warm and perceptive side of his nature when he took over for one week the life, family and income of a single mother living on benefits in Wallasey - When Michael Portillo became a Single Mum, (2003). He chose to present Queen Elizabeth I for the BBC's series of Great Britons in 2002.

Since 2002, he has presented his own discussion series, "Dinner with Portillo", on BBC Four, in which political and social questions are explored by Portillo and his seven guests, over a four-course meal. Now (2007) in its fifth series, his guests have included Bianca Jagger, Grayson Perry, Francis Wheen, Seymour Hersh, PD James, Baroness Shirley Williams, George Galloway, Benazir Bhutto and Germaine Greer.

In 2007, he participated in the BBC television project The Verdict, serving, with other well-known figures, as a jury member hearing a fictional rape case. He was elected the jury's foreman.

The documentary How To Kill A Human Being, in the Horizon series, featured Portillo carrying out a survey of capital punishment methods (including undertaking some near-death experiences himself) in an attempt to find an 'acceptable' form. It was broadcast on BBC Two on 15 January 2008.

In 2008 Portillo made a documentary as part of the BBC Headroom campaign (Headroom explores mental health issues). Portillo's documentary 'Death of a School Friend' explores how the suicide of Portillo's classmate Gary Findon affected Gary's parents, brother, music teachers, school teachers, classmates, and Portillo himself. The programme was originally broadcast on Friday 7th November 2008.

Portillo has written a regular column for The Sunday Times, contributes to other journals, (he was a theatre critic for the New Statesman until May 2006), and is a regular radio broadcaster in the UK.

Other activities

• Portillo has in a video series interviewed clients of the French corporation Capgemini.
• Portillo is the Chairman of the committee choosing the 2008 Man Booker Prize.
• Since 1998, Portillo has been a Commissioner of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP).
• Portillo is a trustee of the charity The Parliamentary Committee Against Anti-Semitism.

Further reading

• Michael Gove, (1995), "Michael Portillo: The Future of the Right" ISBN 1857023358
• Michael Gove, (2000), "Michael Portillo", Fourth Estate, 448 pages, ISBN 1-84115-363-X (paperback).

External links

• Official website
• Portillo's columns for The Sunday Times
• Guardian Unlimited Politics Ask Aristotle – Michael Portillo
• They Work For You – Michael Portillo
• The Public Whip – Michael Portillo voting record
• Harrow County Grammar School