We have to be pretty tough with mortgage companies and say you have got to give people the chance to work out their debts, sort out future mortgages.

I want Britain to be a global financial centre but I want it to be properly regulated.

Just as it wouldn't be right to only to have an economic dialogue with China, equally you shouldn't restrict your dialogue solely to issues around, say, human rights. You can raise all those issues, and that is what reflects a mature discussion. So I don't think essentially we have to choose between being partners in China's economic development and being proud defenders of British values.

Well look, no one takes pleasure from people making money out of the misery of others, but that is a function of capitalist markets.

The foundations of a strong economy don't rest alone on the decisions of Chancellors or the spending programmes of government.

What I'm interested in is Britain projecting itself abroad, and through that its values and the things it holds dear. And I don't think you do that by refusing to talk to the world's second-largest economy [China]. In fact, that is positively counter-productive in my view.

Britain should not be forced to make a choice between joining the single currency and leaving the EU, because if we're forced to make that choice we would leave the EU.