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

You learn from mistakes.

My father was a manual worker.

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.

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

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

My family were from Jamaica.