As a woman, I don't trust Boris Johnson with my rights and that's largely because of the things that he has said and done in his political life.

If we reduce the minimum voting age to 16, as we should, then people could be auto-registered when they are issued with a national insurance card.

We have got to be brave and bold and bring people with us, not try and look all ways. Trying to please everyone usually means we have pleased no one.

I've made a career out of being able to talk about difficult things, and that comes from growing up in an environment where nothing was embarrassing.

The Labour party is mainly full of amazing people who care so much about equality and social justice they are probably a bit of a bore at a family do.

Our challenge is to restore both trust in Labour as a party of government and trust in democracy as the best means of delivering what the public wants.

When you're left on the floor of a hospital gasping for breath, or you can't get your kid a school place, the simplest things are your idea of radical.

Ah, well, I do think the generation that came after me has changed. I think there is a growing sense that young women should like themselves a bit more.

I am not into self-exploration. My family would lose their eyes in the backs of their heads if people talked about personal journeys or finding oneself.

When working at Women's Aid, I met countless women whose families had not believed them when they spoke of their abuse at the hands of another loved one.

Lisa Nandy is absolutely right that we need to devolve economic power away from Westminster and learn from what Labour councils around the country are doing.

Any MP who deals with immigration a huge amount, which I do, is going to worry about giving powers to the executive to change immigration law without scrutiny.

I'm not usually one to heap praise on Jeremy Corbyn but I love that he doesn't drag his wife on stage for awkward snogs after his annual speech at the party conference.

I don't know how all of my friends vote; it doesn't come up. But it would be a lie to say that I don't surround myself with people who have a similar moral code to mine.

I under no circumstances want to be seen as a victim. I have worked with victims of sexual violence and I don't have a candle to hold to the experiences of those victims.

I refuse to believe this rhetoric that the Labour party can't get under one big umbrella with a common enemy - sometimes a common enemy is an absolutely delightful unifier.

We've all got to discover the courage to ask the difficult questions about the future of our party and the future of the working-class communities who need a Labour government.

In short, that politicians do or don't have families should no longer have any bearing on their abilities to hold office or to care more or less about the future of the country.

My mum was always extremely political. I have fond memories of making signs as a child for the nuclear disarmament protests at Greenham Common, or helping her bake cakes for them.

I was never a ringleader, but I was willing, when asked questions, to give my opinion. And when you say things quite bluntly, it's very easy for people to hang their hats on that.

Ken Livingstone appears incapable of contrition. That is why he must be thrown out of the Labour party. He is so certain he is right about everything, he won't come close to change.

If a friend got a big promotion, I would outwardly congratulate them, but inside I would painfully compare myself with them and think that their success was a reflection on my failings.

I like to go camping with my kids. I've got an amazing group of friends. Just like any 30-year-old woman I like to go out dancing, eating food, drinking with my mates, like any normal person.

The fact that I stick up for women doesn't mean that I think all men are rapists. But that's lost somewhere in translation. Obviously I don't think that. I married one! I gave birth to two of them.

Regardless of how people love to deride politicians, democracy is not an easy gig. My decisions, views and heartfelt principles are dismissed by so many as careerist, opportunist or attention-seeking.

People just don't believe we'll deliver what we say we will. They don't believe we want to listen or to understand their lives. And they don't believe we are able to do much to make their lives better.

When my children were little, I would chat with my husband or my mum friends about how we were superior parents to other people, or that so-and-so was lying about how their children slept through the night.

I have felt the force of what governments can do. I remember my elder son being in the first cohort of kids who got a free nursery place, I remember the palliative care my mother got at home as I watched her die.

One of the things I want to achieve in the potentially short time I'm in Westminster is to stop people thinking we're all the same. Because while they believe that, the establishment stays in the same people's hands.

For a party of the left to win, people have to have believe that government, the state, can be on their side. When I was a young mother, Sure Start and tax credits weren't just a financial lifeline, they represented hope.

The ability to say 'I was wrong' or to own up to your mistakes is very powerful. I teach my children that admitting fault is the quickest way to stop the problem, move on and get on with whatever it is you should be doing.

If you cut me I bleed Birmingham. Others would say it's being a woman, but coming from Birmingham is the single most important part of my identity. I'm not always sure I feel English or British, but I always feel like a Brummie.

I do find it funny, actually, why I'm not more of a Corbyn fan. I am a classic Corbyn fan, really. Not so much on the foreign policy, but I'm leftwing, pro-immigration, pro-welfare spending, there's very little that we wouldn't agree on.

I'm stunned at the amount of young women who get in touch with me every single day, trying to become somebody like me. As a teenager, I would never have done that. And I was someone who was interested in politics. But I wouldn't have emailed the local MP.

Today we're more distanced from each other, the bonds formed at the local shop replaced by the massive supermarket or the stressed driver thrusting a package through a letterbox. Instead of meeting in pubs, more of us sit at home with supermarket wine and Netflix.

In every single place I have campaigned in and every single place I have lived, people want some fairly basic things. They want to believe that they are safe, they want to know that their children will be educated and that if they are ill, they will be made better.

I don't think Jeremy Corbyn hates women - I don't think Jeremy hates anyone. Spend even one minute with him and you would want to take him down to the pub and sink a pint of mild with the man. However, in the hard left of British politics lurks a gruesome misogyny.

My favourite film is probably 'Star Wars'. I do love 'Starship Troopers', it is a great film but it's not a film I watch over and over again. Whereas 'Star Wars' I've watched over and over again all my life, and it's a film I can tolerate watching with my children.

I think power will do anything to survive and one of its main techniques is the rule of exceptions. So it makes an exception out of people and we worship them, whether that's Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks. These people become beatified beyond recognition.

I'm a believer in forgiveness. I have worked with people who have been in gangs and now dedicate their lives to helping inner city kids. I've run offender services with teachings of responsibility, empathy and understanding of the victims at their heart. I've seen people change.

The NHS was hard to deliver, so was the minimum wage. It's time now - we need to have a proper conversation about how much is the individual cost, how much is the burden that we're all going to share together, and how much are we going to put on older adults now versus a future system like national insurance.

Because I sometimes shopped in Waitrose, I thought I was actually quite posh. I've realised that I'm basically a scullery maid. Even the middle-class people who I meet in parliament, people who live in London - which I think is remarkable because how can anybody afford to live there - seem much, much more middle class than me.

The desire to look strong and decisive, instead of looking human, is the fatal flaw of so many politicians, and I will never understand why the favoured path of the political class is akin to a child with chocolate smeared on their face insisting that they didn't eat the edible Christmas tree ornaments while their parents slept.

Share This Page