Ideology never put food on my table.

I do my best to be true to who I am.

Mental health is a case study in Tory failure.

The Tories should treat working families with more respect.

I've seen at first-hand what Labour Governments can achieve in power.

Our higher education admissions process is neither fair nor effective.

My mother suffers mental health problems and has a learning deprivation.

Sure Start transformed my life as a mum and allowed me to get back to work.

I don't pronounce all my words exactly how they do on the BBC. I am who I am.

We can't have children growing up feeling unloved - the price is too high for that.

I think technical education and vocational skills and having a trade mean something.

Growing up without love, without being cared for, might be the worst type of poverty.

I believe Ofsted measures poverty. It measures deprivation. It doesn't measure excellence.

Child poverty is more than an abstract problem to me. It's something I know all too much about.

In a parliamentary democracy, it is the job of parliament to decide the law, not the government.

I'm a mum and I hate the thought of any child going a whole day at school without a healthy meal.

People understand that any major reform to pensions is likely to create losers as well as winners.

The evidence shows that grammar schools overwhelmingly benefit those from more affluent backgrounds.

Underestimating grades has serious consequences for a student's choice of university, and their future.

We need to focus on helping EVERY child to get a world-class education in EVERY school in this country.

You'd be surprised how many politicians have a working class background but they get it beaten out of them.

I first learned the power of a Labour government to transform lives growing up in my hometown of Stockport.

We must ensure that every single child can go as far as their ability and their aspirations will take them.

We as a nation cannot be satisfied with our children suffering health problems through no fault of their own.

Grammar schools are about stigmatising children, not on the grounds of their ability, but on their background.

We need radical, transformative solutions to address the inequality that is blighting millions of people's lives.

Give children healthy food and they behave better at school, concentrate more in class and perform better in exams.

No deal wouldn't return sovereignty to the U.K., it would make us dependent on a sweetheart deal with Donald Trump.

I cannot be clearer about this. I am not in politics, let alone Labour's shadow cabinet, to keep things as they are.

Regardless of what tribe people think they're in, we don't work in isolation as human beings, we want to do what's right.

I've always been the girl who can't sit on her hands. If there's a pink elephant in the room, I'll identify it and say it.

Free school meals for all children, no matter what their background, will improve the education and health of our children.

I'm the only member of the house, who at age 16, and pregnant, was told in no uncertain terms, I'd never amount to anything.

If you want to underestimate me because I speak like a Mancunian, like the people I grew up with, then so be it at your peril.

My brother and sister are smarter than me. But I'm the most successful because I've been given opportunities that they never had.

Inherently I think the goodness in most people, we get a warm sense of satisfaction if we help someone, it makes you feel better.

As a young single mum struggling to get by, I didn't get to go to university, but that level of debt would have been unimaginable.

If I hadn't had access to the vital support of my local Sure Start centre, I would never have had the help I - and my son - needed.

The way I want to try and end private schools is by making our national education service so good you wouldn't want to waste your money.

The graduate earnings premium, used by the Tories to justify many of their regressive higher education policies, is fast becoming a myth.

To give every child a fair chance to succeed, we need to give them the best possible start in life. For far too many that isn't happening.

If our tax system, as a whole, is progressive, then those with the broadest shoulders will make the greatest contribution, as it should be.

I mean getting into parliament was quite an achievement in itself and then I have to pinch myself at the thought of actually running a department.

I remember going round to my friends' houses and asking them to ask their mum and dad if I could stay for dinner because I wasn't going to get fed.

Surely in a country that works for everyone ensuring that everyone has access to an excellent education should be the first priority of any government?

Mum grew up in Wythenshawe, one of 12. My mum didn't really go to school and didn't see the need for education, she got bullied so she excluded herself.

Sometimes you have to invest in people to get the best out of them. To me, that is socialism. That is why I'm a Labour member rather than a Conservative.

Half of those people who experience mental health difficulties do so before the age of 14. The problems begin early - so early interventions are essential.

Supporting any team has its ups and downs. But being part of a united team on the brink of victory, is the only way we're going to change the country for the better.

My job is making sure that every child gets a good school place. If there is a particular disadvantage to a community, you invest more. Because that's the Labour way.

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