Michael Portillo

Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo (Bushey, Hertfordshire, 26 May 1953) is a British journalist, media personality, former British Conservative politician and former Minister of Defense

He was born in a family with a Spanish father Luis Gabriel Portillo (1907-1993) and a Scottish mother Cora Blyth, daughter of the owner of a factory where linen from flax was made in the Scottish Kirkcaldy. His father had to flee his native Spain at the time, because he was a Republican, the losing party won by Franco during the Spanish civil war.

Portillo became for the first time in the British House of Commons elected in a by-election, which had become necessary because the holder of the seat was killed because of the 1984 IRA Brighton-bomb attack. Portillo was a strong admirer of Margaret Thatcher and a Eurosceptic. Portillo served as Secretary of State under both Thatcher and John Major.In 1992, he was appointed an honorary Minister. Although he was seen as a potential Challenger of John Major for the leadership of the Conservative party to the 1995 leadership election, Portillo ultimately stayed loyal to Major. As Secretary of Defense insisted Portillo to Thatcherite politics of a pure "clear blue water" to the policies of the Conservatives, as much as possible, to distinguish it from that of Labour. In that context he did in 1995 the statement "You can't trust Labour on defence". A ruling to which he was later remembered with some regularity.

In 2001, had lost the elections after William Hague, Portillo did a stab at the leadership of the conservative party, but he had to it after a promising start to Kenneth Clarke and Iain Duncan Smith. The latter became party leader. Portillo remained still until 2005 as backbencher in Parliament. Since 2002 he was already working in business. As Director of the weapons factory BAE Systems in 2006, he had to resign in order to avoid potential conflict of interest. In that year, he led several months the energy company Kerr-McGee.

Since he withdrew from politics and business keeps Portillo is concerned with presenting countless television programs. In particular the BBCseries Great British Railway Journeys and Continental Railway Journeys in 2010-2013 made him popular. In it, he combined tourist information (on the basis of Bradshaw's Descriptive Railway Hand-Book of Great Britain and Ireland, 1863 Edition, Bradshaw's Continental Railway Guiderespectively, Edition 1913) with reflections on the impact of the railway on the economic development of the areas he visited. These programs are also shown on Dutch and Flemish television.