Portillo regrets role in Tory government
Michael Portillo has revealed how much he regrets the part he played in the 1990s Conservative government.
The former Tory defence minister, who will be standing down from his position as MP for Kensington and Westminster at the next general election, admitted he was not happy with some of the views of the party at that time.
And he paid particular attention to the way current leader of the opposition Michael Howard seems to have changed his views from when he was home secretary during that period.
In an interview with ITN, Mr Portillo suggested that he had expected Mr Howard to be of a “liberal” stance because of his upbringing, and found some of his actions “unbelievable”.
“I very much regret the part I played in that in the 1990s, and it may be that Michael Howard has been through the same thing,” said Mr Portillo.
“I remember at the time being surprised that he was a tough and fairly illiberal home secretary, because I had always thought of him coming from an immigrant background, sharing the same characteristics as me, as probably being on the social liberal side of things.”
Mr Portillo was talking in the context of Mr Howard’s speech earlier in the week, where he pledged his support for the Government’s civil partnerships bill, suggesting that all couples should be able to ‘live their lives in different ways’.
