Michael Portillo has progressed from being a cabinet minister to a successful TV personality and after-dinner speaker

Although still Tory MP for Kensington and Chelsea, he is also carving a career in the media and doing rather well.

Once the darling of the right of the Conservative Party, he is now much sought after on the after-dinner speaking circuit.

He is arrogant and opinionated but he has a certain amount of charm and even tells sexy jokes.

The former defence secretary will leave the Commons at the next election and, in his own words, is now out to enjoy life.

Clearly, he enjoyed the warm reception in once Conservative Brighton and Hove.

The tables of the large suite were all taken to hear the rejected Tory leader. I doubt if former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith would have got such a large audience.

We were treated to jokes, tales about life as a minister in Margaret Thatcher's government, his views on Tony Blair and the state of the world as he sees it.

It was an impressive performance as he spoke for an hour without notes and answered questions from the audience, which he warmed up by going round each table signing menus.

Portillo also revealed that if he had not walked away from an argument with a journalist in the early hours of October 13, 1984, in the foyer of the venue, he could have been killed by the IRA bomb which wrecked the Grand Hotel hotel minutes later.

Portillo fully supports military action against Iraq but admitted being concerned by the current situation.

"Until a few days ago, I would have predicted a favourable outcome as I thought we could have controlled the security situation and then hand over to an Iraqi regime but we do not have enough troops out there to control the borders."

Portillo will soon be absent from frontline politics but he is a smooth and class act on the celebrity speaker circuit.

His views from his new position, outside looking in will be listened to, as those who attended this lunch will testify.