Michael Portillo

The Right Honourable Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo (born 26 May 1953) is a journalist and was a British Conservative politician.

Early life

He was born Michael Denzil Portillo in Bushey in Hertfordshire, and took the name Xavier at confirmation. His father was an exiled Spanish republican, Luis Gabriel Portillo, and his mother, the former Cora Blyth, was of Scottish extraction. He was educated at Harrow County grammar school and then won a scholarship to Peterhouse, Cambridge where he came under the influence of Maurice Cowling. He 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 contested his first political seat in the 1983 general election standing in Birmingham Perry Barr against Jeff Rooker and losing badly. He returned to advisory work for the government and in 1984 he stood and won the Enfield Southgate by-election (1984) following the death of the incumbent, Sir Anthony Berry, in the IRA terrorist bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton, England.

Related Topics:
Bushey - Hertfordshire - Peterhouse, Cambridge - Maurice Cowling - 1975 - Conservative Research Department - 1976 - 1979 - Kerr-McGee - 1981 - 1983 - 1983 general election - Birmingham Perry Barr - Jeff Rooker - 1984 - Anthony Berry - Brighton, England

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