Diane Abbott Quotes

Mental health is often missing from public health debates even though it's critical to wellbeing.

I'm not the only Labour MP who sent their child to public school but I'm the only one who's questioned about it.

I want to write a best-selling book.

There are 101 websites out there for debate - this was a blatant last attempt to get someone to stand against Gordon Brown.

My forebears refused to cut the sugar cane for plantation owners, and I am recognisably a product of that background.

So long as the UK continues to maintain its own identity, it is my belief that the US and the UK should maintain close relations.

Families are struggling against a tide of junk information on junk food.

My family were from Jamaica.

I spend a lot of time visiting local organisations.

In politics, the people I most despise are those who have no values.

Let's talk about the real issues of crime which people are worried about. What people are worried about is the rise in violent crime. We believe that more community policemen and women are part of the answer to this.

You learn from mistakes.

My father was a manual worker.

You can't defend the indefensible. Anything you say sounds self-serving and hypocritical.

Tackling childhood obesity is key.

I was a postman one Christmas and I developed a morbid fear of dogs.

I want a Labour Party that is more democratic, more open and listens to its members.

It's very lonely bringing up a child on your own.

I wanted my marriage to work, but it didn't.

Abortion is an issue of conscience for the Labour party.

My mother liked Jim Reeves. I hated his records. He was unbearable.

I'm a West Indian mum and West Indian mums will go to the wall for their children.

It is time Britain put its trust back into the Labour Party. I believe I am the candidate that can make this happen precisely because I am not associated with the past.

Outsiders often have an insight that an insider doesn't quite have.

White people love playing 'divide & rule'. We should not play their game.

Gun crime is a major cause of fear and distress throughout the UK. The problem is deeply entrenched in a wide range of social and cultural factors and therefore not an isolated issue.

There is no reason why the US and the UK cannot have close relations.

I'm not thick-skinned at all, and of course I'm hurt by people attacking me as a person.

I believe every abortion is a tragedy.

Being an MP is a good job, the sort of job all working-class parents want for their children -- clean, indoors and no heavy lifting. What could be nicer?

My London constituency in Hackney has one of the highest levels of gun crime in the country. But the problem is no longer confined to inner city areas. Gun crime has spread to communities all over Britain.

When fast food is not a treat but a dietary staple, the children surf the internet all day in dark corners of the room and are bombarded with latest gadgets. Things replace parental standards.

I don't think you can have pain and soul-searching doing the right thing for your child.

Because when you watch US television, all the presenters and reporters, they're all out of central casting.

Finally, there's a sense in which I look at this Westminster village and London intelligentsia as an outsider.