In a new interview with the Beeb about his docuseries Great Continental Railway Journeys, Portillo said: “I am always pulled back [to the railways] because I'm European. I feel very strongly that I am a European. It's the history, it's the culture, and it's the legacy of Christianity that binds Europe together.

“So, when you go to Belgium or Hungary, you're seeing buildings with which you immediately connect with because they're cathedrals or they are churches. You're seeing paintings with which you immediately connect because they're Gothic or their Renaissance or their impressionists or whatever. So, you know, we're joined together culturally with these countries.

“So, they're immediately familiar but with enormous variants, which is what makes them so interesting.”

Speaking in 2022 about why he voted for the UK to leave the EU, Portillo said: “t struck me that the countries of Europe are so different - they have such different political cultures.

“The meaning of citizen, the meaning of state, are different in each of these places.

“I couldn’t at all understand the aspiration to want to govern Europeans in general.

“I couldn’t at all see how you could achieve a government of Europeans, in general, that would be accountable and democratic.”