Michael Portillo has quit frontline politics after being dumped from the Tory leadership race. In a ballot of Conservative Party MPs today, Mr Portillo got 53 votes, Ken Clarke polled 59 and Iain Duncan Smith got 54 votes. Mr Clarke and Mr Duncan Smith will now be put to the party's 300,000 rank-and-file members who will appoint a new leader in September.
In the aftermath of the vote, Mr Portillo said that he would never again seek front bench office in the Conservative Party. He said: "I think the time has come for me to look for other things to do… I really don't think it's an option for me to serve in a shadow administration. Apart from anything else I'd just get in their way."
Mr Clarke, who polled 20 votes more than last week, stormed ahead of Mr Duncan Smith in today's ballot. Mr Clarke said that he was totally surprised to hear that Mr Portillo was withdrawing from frontline politics.
