“The concept of doing something with child benefit, of changing the rules around child benefit, is something that has been being discussed for some time.”

If you are from an ordinary working class family, life is just much harder than many people in politics realise.

Whether an MP is a woman or a man, it’s about the qualities of the individual in doing that job.

Britain and the United States have an enduring and special relationship based on the values of freedom, democracy and enterprise.

People will be able to raise their concerns: what are local officers doing about the drug dealing in the local park? What’s happening about the pub where all the trouble is? And the police will have to respond.

Nobody can guarantee the real terms per pupil funding increase. In the Labour party’s manifesto we know the figures don’t add up.

I’d personally like to see the Human Rights Act go because I think we have had some problems with it.

The internet makes it much easier for politicians to communicate directly with voters – think of the interest when David [Cameron] launched WebCameron, or Tony Blair’s rather embarrassing attempt to catch up on YouTube.

Donald Trump does not understand the UK and what happens in the UK.

I was a teenage godmother.

National security is the first duty of government but we are also committed to reversing the substantial erosion of civil liberties.

I have not watched WAGs World, I have not watched the BBC’s Upstairs, Downstairs, either. It would be Downton Abbey, I think.

Tying money up for 40 years doesn’t sound appealing when you are young.

Britain is an open and tolerant country.

As I say the UK’s position on the issue of torture and the use of torture has not changed. Our policy is the same as it has been. We condemn torture.

I was in the Commons recently and saw a young lady wearing a nice pair of shoes. I said I liked them and she said my shoes were the reason she became involved in politics.

Sham marriages have been widespread; people have been allowed to settle in Britain without being able to speak English; and there have not been rules in place to stop migrants becoming a burden on the taxpayer. We are changing all of that.

The concept is to weave in some emotion.

I’m fulfilled in what I do. I never thought that a lot of money or fine clothes – the finer things of life – would make you happy. My concept of happiness is to be filled in a spiritual sense.

Concepts of well-being for countries, for peoples and for individuals are changing. In such a world, to argue for rules that never change would be to deny the reality found in scientific knowledge and reasoned judgment.

A concept is a brick. It can be used to build a courthouse of reason. Or it can be thrown through the window.

I’ve always felt like I was observing everything, like I’m just looking out of the window, peeping how everybody is living and just penning about it, so I made the album about that concept.

In Italy, the concept of the family is very important.

Without the existence of the opposite, the concept has no meaning.

I appreciate the change associated with people’s growth, but I don’t like the changes in our lives. I came to Mumbai in 1945, so imagine my acceptance of the massive changes around. I have witnessed every kind of revolution.