“I had never met anyone of my own age that was a Tory, so going to university and seeing people who were Tories and who believed in what I believed in was an eye-opener.”

When I started my ministerial job I brought my daughters into the Department, due to last-minute childcare complications.

When I travel around the country, I see great companies with new ideas and a can-do attitude. But too often they are in hand-to-hand and pen-to-paper combat with officialdom.

All of my parents’ friends worked in public sector jobs.

We spent a lot of time talking about politics at home. We went to the camp at Greenham Common.

If we just had an election which is a kind of desiccated calculation, obviously I think the Conservatives have the best economic plans, but it is about more than that. It is about the overall person.

Opinion polls show that millennials are focused, aspirational and entrepreneurial.

We are fighting a Labour Party whose avowed enemy is capitalist bosses, whose instinct is to see income as a common pool resource, and whose leading figures find profit morally repugnant.

The US is our largest trading partner and increasing transatlantic trade can help our economies bounce back from the economic challenge posed by coronavirus.

If John McDonnell nationalised whole industries, they would be quickly taken over by bureaucrats more concerned about their careers than about customers.

We’re trendsetters, first to welcome brilliant inventions into our lives, from the microwave meal to Instagram.

I want Britain to lead the world in food and farming and to do that we need enough productive agricultural land.

I think there’s a danger in politics of being too risk-averse.

And I observe that for the vast majority of the Labour government we had a top rate of 40 per cent income tax. It’s now higher, and I think we should look to get to a simpler, lower tax system.

What you notice in French nurseries is just how calm they are. All of their classes are structured and led by teachers. It’s a requirement.

I didn’t become a Tory just to become part of a managerial group who wanted to run the country…

Britain is a nation of Uber-riding, Deliveroo-eating, Airbnb-ing freedom fighters.

Sometimes the mistake I see people make is thinking that they’re always going to be up, and I think that’s impossible for anyone.

Save me from the ranks of the freaks who suspect they can never love anyone.

The loneliness caused by not hearing Ren’s voice… I felt it deep in the night. I felt it deeper than anyone else. Even now at times I look back.

As someone who knows her mind and who I envy for that. As someone who is strong in herself without seeming to need anyone else to help her. As someone who makes me thinks and unsettles me in a way that makes me feel more alive.

And the price for being a homo-hater should be as high as anyone can pay.

He will still mean danger. Modern technology requires calm. You shouldn’t trust anyone with a car who has no knowledge about vehicles or roads.

The Muslim people is calling upon you, Jerusalem is appealing to you, will anyone answer?

This awake silence is available to anyone in this moment. All you have to do is stop using your mind to look for it. It doesn’t know where to find it.