Portillo steps in at Dip
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• New Transport Minister Michael Portillo is on an inside track to the Cabinet. His meteoric rise to minister of state, less than four years after being elected as MP for Enfield, was announced by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher this week in a surprise reshuffle.
Portillo was previously a Department of Health and Social Security Minister. Very much on the right wing of the party, he has in the past been a consultant to British AirWays. He is also a keen motorist.
At 35, Portillo is the youngest minister of state in the government. From the moment he came into the Commons in December 1984 at a by-election following the Brighton bombing, Portillo has been ear-marked foi high office. Nevertheless the speed of his promotion has surprised many people and left a number of rivals trailing in his wake — including the Roads anc Traffic Minister Peter Bottom ley.
Portillo replaces David Mitchell, who has resigned for family reasons. Thatcher told him she regretted his decision to leave after nine years and made it clear that had he wished to stay on she would have kept him in the Government.