BRITAIN: Mr Michael Portillo - one time darling of the Thatcherite right turned leading Tory moderniser - has consigned political ambition to personal history and announced he will stand down at the next election.
"It's no good pretending it's there when it's gone," he told the BBC last night, acknowledging the inevitable disappointment of admirers who considered him essential to the task of making his party re-electable, while confirming he had lost his enthusiasm "for the cut and thrust" of partisan politics.
Close political friends at Westminster, including MPs who backed his failed leadership bid in 2001, were surprised by yesterday's announcement. However, Mr Portillo (50) said he had been considering a life beyond politics since the last general election. And he confirmed that he had brought forward his announcement by some two weeks to make it clear this was the sole reason he had rejected an invitation from the newly elected Conservative leader, Mr Michael Howard, to rejoin the shadow cabinet.
Mr Portillo declined to say which post he had been offered by Mr Howard, and insisted that - while having reconsidered and then stuck by his original decision - he would have been delighted to serve with him.
"The reason I'm not joining the shadow cabinet is that I'm not fighting the next election," said Mr Portillo, explaining that it was only fair to Mr Howard to get his personal decision out of the way.
Amid continuing speculation about the troubled relationship between Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair and Chancellor Gordon Brown, Labour leapt at the news of Mr Portillo's decision to depart the Tory stage.
Health Secretary Dr John Reid said: "This is a massive snub to Mr Poll Tax, Michael Howard. It shows the moderates and modernisers in the Conservative Party have given up." Mr Portillo rejected this: "I have been considering my future for some time and I have decided that it should lie outside the House of Commons. In a number of ways I have lost my enthusiasm for the cut-and-thrust of the chamber and my contribution to it has diminished."
Nor was the Kensington and Chelsea MP deserting a sinking ship. "The story is about how the Conservative Party is afloat again," he told ITV News Channel. "The party is certainly strong enough and sailing comfortably enough in the water that it doesn't need me to plug any gaps in its hull."
However, there was dismay among Mr Portillo's supporters in the parliamentary party, a majority of whom had initially backed him to succeed Mr William Hague barely two years ago.
Mr Portillo was finally eliminated from that leadership contest by a single vote, when Mr Iain Duncan Smith pipped him to join Mr Kenneth Clarke on the final shortlist of two put to the first-ever ballot of the party's rank-and-file members.
Mr Andrew MacKay MP said: "I have always felt he had a major role to play in British politics for a long time to come. It is a sad day for British politics and a sad day for the Conservative Party."
And Mr Nicholas Soames, who worked as a junior minister under Mr Portillo at the Ministry of Defence, said: "I think he feels he has done his whack. It is a sad day. He was the most wonderful man to work for. I was hugely suspicious of him when we met but he was wonderful to work for. It is a great loss to the Tory party."
Similar suspicion of Mr Portillo on the Thatcherite right had given way to outright hostility following his ejection from parliament in 1997, when his defeat at Enfield became a totem for Labour's landslide victory over the Major government. A subsequent personal political journey, attended by revelations about a gay past, saw him redefine himself as the champion of a tolerant and inclusive Conservative Party.
The bitter personal distaste of some traditional Tories was evidenced in Lord \ Tebbit's endorsement of "normal family man" Mr Duncan Smith in preference to the exotic and charismatic Mr Portillo for leader.
Yet ironically Mr Portillo yesterday declined the offer from a previously hardline Home Secretary, Mr Howard, who has made a commitment to lead from his party's centre, an acknowledgement that society had moved on, and a promise to respect the decisions people make about how they lead and live their lives.
Mr John Bercow, who quit Mr Duncan Smith's shadow cabinet to join the rebellion over gay adoption, said last night: "I am very sorry to hear the news. Michael was an excellent minister. He has shown dignity in adversity and he made us all think about how the Conservative Party must change to regain mass public support."