Michael Portillo

Journalist

Michael Portillo was born in Bushey, England, United Kingdom on May 26th, 1953 and is the Journalist. At the age of 70, Michael Portillo biography, profession, age, height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, measurements, education, career, dating/affair, family, news updates, and networth are available.

  Report
Date of Birth
May 26, 1953
Nationality
United Kingdom
Place of Birth
Bushey, England, United Kingdom
Age
70 years old
Zodiac Sign
Gemini
Profession
Journalist, Politician
Michael Portillo Height, Weight, Eye Color and Hair Color

At 70 years old, Michael Portillo physical status not available right now. We will update Michael Portillo's height, weight, eye color, hair color, build, and measurements.

Height
Not Available
Weight
Not Available
Hair Color
Not Available
Eye Color
Not Available
Build
Not Available
Measurements
Not Available
Michael Portillo Religion, Education, and Hobbies
Religion
Not Available
Hobbies
Not Available
Education
Not Available
Michael Portillo Spouse(s), Children, Affair, Parents, and Family
Spouse(s)
Not Available
Children
Not Available
Dating / Affair
Not Available
Parents
Not Available
Michael Portillo Life

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

In 1984, he was first elected to the House of Commons in a by-election.

Portillo, both a great admirer of Margaret Thatcher and a Eurosceptic, served as a junior minister under Both Thatcher and John Major before entering the cabinet in 1992.

During the 1995 Conservative leadership race, he was seen as a potential challenger to Major but remained loyal.

He called for a purist Thatcherite course of "clear blue water," distinguishing the Conservatives' policies from those of the Labour Party. At the 1997 general election, Portillo unexpectedly lost the to a largely conservative Enfield Southgate seat.

The expression "portillo moment" was coined by this occurrence.

Portillo resurfaced on the front bench as the Shadow Chancellor after being given the Conservative nomination in 1999 by-election in Kensington and Chelsea, although his relationship with Conservative Leader William Hague was difficult.

He finally came in third place behind Iain Duncan Smith and Kenneth Clarke when he was standing for the leadership of the party in 2001. At the 2005 general election, Portillo resigned from active politics and pursuing his media ambitions, presenting and attending a variety of television and radio stations.

Portillo's passion for steam trains led him to the creation of the BBC documentary series Great British Railway Journeys, in which he travels the British railway networks, referring to an 1840s copy of Bradshaw's Guide.

Portillo went on to launch a number of new series of railway systems in other countries thanks to the show's success.

Early life

Portillo was born in Bushey, Hertfordshire, to an exiled Spanish republican father Luis Gabriel Portillo (1907-1993) and Cora Waldegrave (née Blyth) (1919-1984-2014). Portillo's father, a devout Catholic, was a founder of left-wing movements in the 1930s and emigrated from Madrid when it fell to General Franco in 1939, settling in England. In 1972, he took over the London Diplomatic Office of the Government in Exile. John Blyth, Portillo's maternal grandfather, was a flourishing linoleum manufacturer from Kirkcaldy.

Portillo was born as a Spanish citizen at the age of 4, and his Spanish passport designates him as Miguel Portillo Blyth.

Portillo appeared in a television commercial for Ribena, a blackcurrant cordial drink. He was educated at Stanburn Primary School in Stanmore, Greater London, and Harrow County School for Boys, then received a scholarship to Peterhouse, Cambridge, where he studied history. Portillo had endorsed Labour Party politics while at school, but attributed his acceptance of conservatism in Cambridge to Maurice Cowling's influence.

Carolyn Claire Eadie, Portillo's mother, was born on February 12, 1982.

Source

Michael Portillo Career

Political career (1984–2005)

Portillo earned a first-class degree in 1975 and rejoined the Conservative Research Department in 1976 after a brief stint with Ocean Transport and Trading Ltd., a shipping and transportation company, a small shipping and transport company. Following the 1979 Conservative victory, he became a government advisor to David Howell at the Department of Energy. Between 1981 and 1983, he went to work for Kerr-McGee Oil. He fought his first political race in Birmingham, Lancashire's first general election, losing to incumbent Jeff Rooker in 1983 general election.

Portillo has returned to advisory service for the government, and in December 1984, he ran for and won Enfield Southgate by-election, following the assassination of incumbent Sir Anthony Berry in the IRA's bombing of the Grand Hotel, Brighton. He began as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Moore, and then as an assistant whip.

Portillo was appointed as the Minister of State for Social Security in 1987, and as a Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Social Security in the following year; the following year, he was promoted to Minister of State for Transport. Portillo has stated that "saving the Settle to Carlisle railway" was his highest achievement. Margaret Thatcher's uncle was a big fan.

Portillo was elected Minister of State for Local Government in 1990, in which he argued in favor of the ultimately unpopular Community Charge system (also known as "the Poll Tax"). He delivered a consistent right-of-centre line (exemplified by his insistence, in a well-publicized address, that placed "clear blue water" between the Conservative and other groups' policies) and was praised by Norman Tebbit and Margaret Thatcher, who said of him, "Do not disappoint us." His rise under John Major began under John Major, who was appointed as Chief Secretary to the Treasury in 1992 and admitted to the Privy Council in the same year. He was then Secretary of State for Labor (1994-95), and then Secretary of State for Defense (1995-1997).

In a address at the 1995 Conservative Party annual conference, Portillo, the Defence Secretary, became the object of criticism after he invoked the SAS' motto, "Who Dares, Wins." The transfer of the entire Ministry of Defence (MoD) housing for military personnel to Annington Homes was approved by his ministry in 1996.

His high success attracted constant interest from the media, including Private Eye, which mocked him by misreferring him as "Portaloo." When Alexandra Palace was hired to commemorate his ten years in politics, he was accused of vanity.

Following Major's resignation as the party leader, some saw the Defence Secretary post as a reward for Portillo's stumbling loyalty to Major during the 1995 leadership challenge. Many encouraged Portillo, the "darling of the right," to run against Major. He declined to participate in the first round but vowed to challenge Major if the tournament went to a second round. To this end, he created a potential campaign headquarters, as well as banks of telephone lines. He later admitted that this had been an error: "I didn't want to oppose [Major], but neither did I want to close the possibility of a second vote if it came to that." Portillo acknowledged that "ambiguity is unattractive" and that his allies within the party later used Portillo's ostensiveness as a sign of his indecisiveness; "I was able to wound but not strong: a dishonourable position."

Portillo's departure of the Enfield Southgate seat in the 1997 general election to Labour's Stephen Twigg came as a surprise to many politicians and commentators, who were shocked to see the full extent of the Labour landslide triumph. Following the expected Conservative loss and begged for a leadership bid halfway through the campaign, Portillo welcomed aide Andrew Cooper and Michael Simmonds to their house and presented them with some suggestions for a leadership campaign. However, when a poll in The Observer revealed that Portillo had only three points in his hitherto-safe seat, he could have argued that this was wrong; Cooper, who oversaw the party's internal polls, told him that this was wrong; Cooper, who oversaw the party's internal polling, was unwilling to answer, and Portillo began to panic that he would lose; but, Portillo's losing was too late; when Cooper, who was o

On election night, he had a memorable chat with Jeremy Paxman before the result was announced in his own seat. "So Michael, will you miss the limo?" Paxman began the interview with the question, "will you miss the limo?" "An prediction that the Conservatives were dooming, and that would no longer be a Minister." "Are we seeing the end of the Conservative Party as a credible force in British politics?" Portillo wondered later. He has since admitted that he had already come to believe he had misplaced his seat prior to the interview:

Portillo's loss was a 17.4% swing to Labour. "The Portillo moment" has been referred to as "the Portillo moment" by the Conservative Party, and the phrase "Were you up for Portillo" has been used to describe the campaign. (i.e., "Were awake/did you see Portillo's result announced on television? "My name is now synonymous with eating a bucketload of shit in public," Portillo's uncle said a decade ago.

Portillo reconnected to Kerr-McGee following the 2011 election but also undertook extensive media work, including BBC and Channel 4 programmes. "I had some homosexual experiences as a youth person," Portillo said in an interview with The Times in 1999. The death of Alan Clark gave Portillo the opportunity to return to Parliament just a few weeks after he had conducted the interview, as Lord Tebbit accused Portillo of lying about the extent of his sexual "deviance" and making similar remarks in a Guardian newspaper article. He won by-election in late November 1999 to represent Kensington and Chelsea, traditionally one of the safest Conservative seats.

William Hague promoted Portillo to the Shadow Cabinet on February 1, 2000, as Deputy Chief and Shadow Chancellor. For the first time in his new role, Portillo stood opposite the Exchequer's Gordon Brown, the Chancellor, in the House of Commons on February 3rd. Portillo announced during this session that a new Conservative government would strengthen the Bank of England's independence and increase its accountability to Parliament, but that it would not repeal the national minimum wage.

Portillo contested the party's leadership after the 2001 general election. He led well in the first ballot of Conservative MPs. However, there were some rumors about his previous homosexual experiences as well as his equivocation at the time of Major's resignation in 1995. According to Kenneth Clarke, he was disqualified in the final round of voting by Conservative MPs, despite damaging his chances, leaving party members to choose between Iain Duncan Smith and Kenneth Clarke.

Portillo returned to the backbenches when Duncan Smith was elected leader. He voted in favour of the 2003 invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Michael Howard, the incoming Conservative leader, declined a Shadow Cabinet post in November 2003. In the 2005 general election, he did not seek re-election. His membership in the Conservative Party has since lapsed.

"After 23 years of careful consideration about what they would like to do in government, the answer is no," the King said in his interview with Andrew Neil in May 2016: "The answer is no."

Portillo supported Brexit, although he also stated that although he accepts Parliament's democratic system, the 2016 Brexit referendum "absolutely does not comply with our system" and that "parliament has the right to interpret" the results. "Because of David Cameron's catastrophic blunder, [Nigel] Farage, the Prime Minister, prompted the Prime Minister to call a referendum that he then lost," he said in a 2016 television interview. He also slammed Theresa May's 2018 "Chequers plan" for exit talks as "the most dreadful betrayal," and "I would have been one of the few people who resigned over the weekend." On another occasion, Portillo declared (as a pundit on This Week) that "short of marching Mrs. May into a train carriage in the Compiègne forest, they might not have found a more humiliating surrender."

Broadcasting career (1998–present)

Portillo's Progress, one of three 60-minute shows looking at the UK's changing social and political scene, saw him make his first foray into broadcasting on Channel 4 in 1998. Portillo has worked in journalism from 2002 to 2007, both as a writer and/or presenter of television and radio documentaries.

Portillo was featured in the BBC weekly political debate show This Week with Andrew Neil from 2003 to 2020, and Diane Abbott, a Labour MP, appeared on the BBC weekly political debate show This Week.

Portillo has appeared in a number of television documentaries. Two of Richard Wagner's stories were published in 2002, one in Spain and one in Spain. For BBC Two's The Natural World series, he produced a video on Spanish wildlife in 2006. Portillo took over for a week as the life, family, and wealth of a single mother in Wallasey, according to an episode of BBC Two's My Week In The Real World, in which politicians took on the role of public servants.

In 2002, he selected Queen Elizabeth I for the BBC's series of Great Britons. Portillo and his seven guests ate a four-course meal in 2002 and 2007. Bianca Jagger, Grayson Perry, Francis Wheen, Seymour Hersh, PD James, Baroness Williams, George Galloway, Benazir Bhutto, and Germaine Greer were among his guests. He appeared in BBC television series The Verdict in 2007, as a jury member witnessing a fictional rape case. He was elected as the jury's foreman.

Portillo's documentary How to Kill a Human Being in the Horizon series featured him doing a research of capital punishment methods (including doing some near death experiences himself) in the hopes of determining a more 'acceptable' form of capital punishment. On January 15, 2008, it was shown on BBC Two. On May 9, 2009, he produced How Violent Are You?, his second Horizon documentary titled How Violent Are You?

Portillo produced a film in 2008 as part of the BBC Headroom programme, which looked at mental health problems. Michael Portillo's documentary "The Death of a School Friend" reveals how the suicide of Gary Findon, a Portillo classmate, affected Findon's parents, brother, music teachers, schoolteachers, and Portillo himself. On November 7, 2008, the show was first broadcast on November 7, 2008.

He produced Great British Railway Journeys, a film in 2009 in which he explored how the railways had a major influence on British society's cultural, economic, and political history. In January 2010, the series premiered in January 2010. In 2011, BBC Two launched a second series, and there are now thirteen series as of May 2021. Following Portillo's tour of continental Europe, Portillo also produced Great Continental Railway Journeys, a television show that followed the Portuguese monarchy. In 2013, a second series was released, and there have been a total of six series to date. Portillo conducted Railways of the Great War with Michael Portillo over five nights in August 2014 as part of the BBC's World War I commemorations. Portillo premiered the Great American Railroad Journeys, a new BBC travel documentary film that took him around the country by rail in early 2016. Great Indian Railway Journeys from 2018 and Great Alaskan and Canadian Railroad Journeys, which began on January 2019, were followed by a similar series. On October 26, 2019, a series of Great Australian Railway Journeys premiered on BBC2 with six journeys around Australia. This was followed by a series of Great Asian Railway Journeys from 27 January 2020 and Great Coastal Railway Journeys (BBC2, January-February 2022).

Although Portillo is on the way to Canfranc in 2020 as part of his Great Continental Railway Journeys, the father of his father was held at the Spanish Civil War's General Archive.

Portillo's other television shows included: tv show "Wantylo" (pardonal), The narrator's documentary "Fluy" (Filio's):

Channel 5 produced The Pyrenees with Michael Portillo, a four-part series that premiered on August 20, 2022.

Portillo appeared on The Political Correction, the GB News show, in early 2022, after which he was invited to host his own weekend political show Portillo, which premiered on October 2nd, 2022.

Portillo has written a regular column in 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 on UK radio. He is a long-serving member of the BBC Radio 4 series The Moral Maze. Capitalism on Trial was a two-part series on BBC Radio 4 in September 2011. On BBC Radio 4's The Things We Forgot to Remember was also a history series.

On BBC Radio 4, he presented a series of twelve 15-minute radio programmes in June 2013 (following the daily World at One news show) in the years leading up to World War I, challengeing the belief that these years were optimistic and joyful.

Portillo would be a member of the new digital radio Times Radio, which was announced in June 2020. He currently hosts a Friday evening program on politics, culture, and history.

Source

After the destroyer shot down nine Houthi drones using its Sea Viper surface-to-air missiles in Gibraltar, HMS Diamond arrives in Gibraltar with a string of 'kill marks' on its side

www.dailymail.co.uk, February 12, 2024
After a Red Sea mission to thwart Iran-backed rebel attacks, British warship HMS Diamond returned to Gibraltar with fresh 'kill marks' on her flanks. The Ministry of Defence reported that the British destroyer had shot down nine Houthi drones while not shielding the Ministry of Defence from a series of attacks. The silhouettes of painted drones on the warship's bridge wings highlight these achievements.

In the latest Red Sea skirmish, HMS Diamond defuses an illicit Houthi drone, according to Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, who says the UK is "undaunted" by Iran-backed rebel attacks

www.dailymail.co.uk, January 28, 2024
In a new Red Sea skirmish last night, a British warship shot down an illegal Houthi drone attack. As rising tensions in the Middle East threaten to escalate into a full-scale regional conflict, the crew on the HMS Diamond successfully blocked a drone strike from Iran-backed Houthi rebel faction. On Twitter/X, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps said today that the UK remains unjustified after yesterday's illicit attack on @HMSDiamond by the Iranian-backed Houthis. Our pledge to innocent lives and navigation freedom is unwavering.'

The Polit-ICK list!Here's all the things about politicians that make us wince, from our Westminster supremo GLEN OWEN

www.dailymail.co.uk, January 14, 2024
We felt it only fair to extend the scope and publish a 'polit-ick list' of annoying conduct by politicians and those in charge in an election year. The Prime Minister has been praised on a variety of fronts, including his overly short trousers, his hoodies, and his dislike of alcohol. However, others have taken the icky-level with photos of Sir Keir Starmer playing football (left), George Osborne cycling (middle), Angela Rayner's attempt at karaoke (right), Michael Portillo pulling a pint (inset right), and Jeremy Corbyn posing for a selfie (inset right).