Mr Michael Portillo made a triumphant return to the Conservative Party conference platform yesterday, winning a prolonged ovation for a speech promising to save sterling and smash Labour's "Berlin Wall" between public and private finance for the health service.
In his first platform appearance as a member of the shadow cabinet Mr Portillo said he had been "devastated" by his general election defeat, but it had given him the chance "to connect with the Britain of today".
And he risked the ire of some of his party's traditionalists as he again pitched for the politics of inclusivity. "We are a party for people, not against people. We are for all Britons: black Britons, British Asians, white Britons.
"Britain is a country of rich diversity. That Britain was on display in Sydney. Athletes of every background united by a pride in Britain, and Britain united by its pride in them," he declared.
Conservatives didn't look for uniformity but for the qualities that marked people out as individual and exceptional, he said. And in a clear challenge to his party, he continued: "We are for people whatever their sexual orientation. The Conservative Party isn't merely a party of tolerance: it's a party willing to accord every one of our citizens respect. Why should people respect us if we withhold respect from them?"
In a self-mocking tone, Mr Portillo asked whether it was likely a "little Englander" would be called Portillo. "I am half Spanish, and proud of it. I am a true European, someone with a love of Europe's different cultures," he said. But the shadow chancellor said the euro threatened "to take Europe back to boom and bust".
The Irish, he told conference, now had high inflation. "But there's nothing they can do about it. When Ireland joined the euro it gave up the right to set its own interest rates." For Germany, he said, the European interest rate was too high.
"Not surprisingly, one interest rate for all of Europe is wrong for most places most of the time," he went on. "And here's the rub. Supposing the people of Ireland wanted to vote against the policies that are driving up their prices? They can't do it. Their elected government doesn't make the policy.
"The critical decisions about growth and jobs in Ireland are being taken by the European Central Bank. And who votes for the European Central Bank? No one. It's wholly unaccountable."
Amid a fresh outbreak of euro-warfare on the conference fringe, a former chancellor, Mr Kenneth Clarke, accused Mr Portillo of talking "blethering economic nonsense". Commenting on Mr Portillo's ovation, Mr Clarke said: "When he got to the obligatory euro bit that was the only thing they cheered to the echo . . . This lot are here to cheer on the Danes."