Gloucester Guildhall Presents Speakers with Michael Portillo

3rd September 2010

The controversial former MP for Kensington and Chelsea will take the stage for what promises to be an unmissable show.
Michael Portillo joined the Government in 1986, and remained a member until 1997. He was a whip, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Social Security, Minister of State for Transport, Minister of State for Local Government and Inner Cities; and as a Cabinet Minister was Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Employment, and Secretary of State for Defence. He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1992.

After his 1997 electoral defeat, Michael returned to his previous job role at Kerr McGee Oil (UK) Ltd as an adviser. He also turned to journalism. He wrote about walking as a pilgrim on the Santiago Way, and working as a hospital porter. He had a weekly column in The Scotsman. He had a three part series for Channel 4 about politics Portillo's Progress, and a programme in BBC2's Great Railway Journeys series, which was partly a biography of his late father, and radio programmes on Wagner and the Spanish Civil War.
Michael was re-elected to Parliament in a by-election in Kensington and Chelsea in November 1999 and was Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer February 2000 - September 2001. Following the Conservatives' election defeat in 2001, Michael unsuccessfully contested the leadership of the party. In 2005 Michael left the House of Commons.

He has made a number of television programmes for BBC2 including Art that shook the world: Richard Wagner's Ring, Portillo in Euroland, Elizabeth I in the series Great Britons, When Michael Portillo became a single mum, Portillo Goes Wild in Spain (a natural history programme) and The Science of Killing (for Horizon). There followed documentaries on the unburied bodies from the Spanish Civil War and Guantanamo Bay. In 2010 BBC Radio 4 carried his 3-part series "Democracy on Trial". For BBC4 he has made several series of Dinner with Portillo, a discussion programme, and in 2008 The Lady's not for Spurning (about Margaret Thatcher's legacy). In 2006 he joined The Moral Maze team on BBC Radio 4. In 2003 he began the weekly political discussion programme This Week on BBC1 with fellow presenters Andrew Neil and Diane Abbott MP. Beginning in 2004 Michael became a frequent columnist on The Sunday Times and was the theatre critic of The New Statesman between 2004 and 2006. In 2008 he chaired the judges of the Man Booker prize and is now ready to share his experiences and his many incredible stories with the public.

Speakers is sponsored by SoGlos.com

Monday 13th September // Doors 7.30pm // Tickets £15
 

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