Southgate constituency in the 1997 election. Portillo was elected in the subsequent by-election and became Shadow Chancellor but his subsequent career stalled and he crashed out of the 2001 Conservative Party leadership election and returned to the backbenches. In 2003 he announced his intention to retire from politics at the next general election to pursue a career in the media. Another former Cabinet Minister, who had also lost his seat in 1997, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, was nominated for the seat in Portillo's stead and elected at the 2005 general election. In October 2007, amid speculation that then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown was about to call a snap general election, former Labour minister Tony Benn announced that he wanted to come out of retirement and return to the Commons, offering himself to the Kensington and Chelsea constituency Labour Party to challenge Malcolm Rifkind. Ultimately, however, no election was held that year, and the Kensington and Chelsea seat was abolished for the 2010 election. Members of Parliament Elections Elections in the 2000s Elections in the 1990s See also List of parliamentary constituencies in London 1999 Kensington and Chelsea by-election References BBC News (2005). Election 2005 - Kensington & Chelsea. Retrieved May 3, 2005. Politics of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1997 Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 2010 Parliamentary constituencies in London (historic)