Michael Portillo was born in Bushey, Hertfordshire, on 26 May 1953 to an exiled Spanish republican father, Luis Gabriel Portillo (1907–1993), and a Scottish mother, Cora Waldegrave de Portillo (née Blyth; 1919–2014). His father, a devout Catholic, fled Madrid when it fell to General Franco in 1939, settling in England. His first television appearance was a commercial for Ribena fruit drink in 1961.

Portillo graduated in 1975 with a first-class degree in history from Peterhouse, Cambridge, and after a brief stint with a shipping and transport company, joined the Conservative Research Department in 1976. He won the Enfield Southgate by-election in December 1984, and rose to become Secretary of State for Defence under John Major.

He became nationally famous in 1997 when he lost his seat in Labour’s landslide general election victory — a moment now immortalised in British political culture as the “Portillo Moment.”

In 2009, Portillo filmed Great British Railway Journeys, exploring how the railways had a profound influence on the social, economic and political history of Britain, using George Bradshaw’s 1863 tourist handbook as his guide.

The series commenced broadcasting in January 2010 and has run for sixteen series to date. In April–May 2026, he presented Great Japanese Railway Journeys for BBC Two, followed immediately by Great Korean Railway Journeys in May 2026. Portillo and his wife divide their time between London and Andalusia, Spain.