Portillo speaks

The audience heard the former-minister-turned-television-presenter talk about life in, and after, politics.

Even Mr Portillo himself would be the first to admit there was plenty of rejoicing when he lost his Enfield Southgate seat at the 1997 general election.

One of the first things he told the assembled crowd was that he was proud the image of him biting his lip as he lost the seat was voted by Guardian readers and Channel 4 viewers as their third favourite moment from the last century.

He said he had only narrowly beaten the execution of the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceacescu, back in 1989, into fourth place in that poll.

Mr Portillo spoke for 90 minutes and took questions from the floor. To begin with, he seemed a little uncomfortable with the surroundings, but did warm up the audience with a series of well-drilled jokes and anecdotes.

Many of his stories built up an air of self-deprecation, including one from the beginning of his political career in 1984.

He told the audience that when he was first standing for the Enfield Southgate seat, he was a lot more energetic.

One day, while canvassing, he leaped over a garden fence and ran to the door of one house, only to turn back and notice he had walked all over some freshly laid concrete.

He said: "The man came out and said 'who are you?', or words to that effect. I said 'Sir, I have the honour of being your parliamentary candidate for the Labour Party'."

Mr Portillo was quick to rule out a return to politics when he was asked by the audience and also talked about the need to reform the Conservative Party to make it more representative of the country it hopes to govern again.