Barclays Wealth is delighted to announce its support of the ‘Celebrity Series’ inaugural event with guest speaker Michael Portillo on the 30th November 2011. The ‘Celebrity Series’ has been established by Sporting and Dining Club founder John Wannenburgh and will take the format of ‘an audience with’. The events are to be held at the Gaiety Theatre in Douglas twice a year and the first guest speaker is ex Conservative MP Michael Portillo. Mr Portillo has a wide and varied political career which began after he spent three years working at the Conservative Research Department. During the 1979 General Election he was responsible for briefing Margaret Thatcher for press conferences and spent the next two years as special adviser to the Secretary of State for Energy. After a short break from politics to work for an oil company, Michael returned as a special adviser to the Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1984 and won the by-election for Enfield Southgate and represented the seat for 13 years. He was a whip, Parliamentary Under Secretary for Social Security, Minister of State for Transport and Minister of State for Local Government and Inner Cities. As a Minister he was Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Secretary of State for Employment, and Secretary of State for Defence. He was admitted to the Privy Council in 1992 and was MP for Kensington and Chelsea until May 2005. Simon Scott, Managing Director of Barclays Wealth Isle of Man said: ‘Barclays Wealth is delighted to be supporting the first ‘Celebrity Series’ event. Michael Portillo is an accomplished and renowned speaker and we will all be interested to hear more about his time in Westminster and new projects he is currently working on. It will be a fantastic event and I am very much looking forward to more in 2012.’ Organiser, John Wannanburgh said: ‘I would like to take this opportunity to thank Barclays Wealth for its support of the ‘Celebrity Series’ launch event with Michael Portillo. I am very excited to be bringing such a well-known and respected speaker to the Island who I know will be very popular. Tickets are available from the Gaiety Theatre box office or online at www.gov.im/villagaiety. Planning has already started for the next event and more details will be announced later in the year.’ ENDS