If anything this thread demonstrates Portillo's one shortcoming (and possibly the main reason he never managed to rise to become party leader).
That isn't why he never managed to become party leader. It is because of his gay experience as a youth.
We had the Tory Chief Whip Derek Conway speak to us at my school and he didn't say it straight out but it was an obvious implication of why he didn't become the leader. Some of the older Tories like himself are homophobic.....
Conway lost his seat (Shrewsbury) in 1997
Before finding a nice safe seat in 2001