I'm never going to take the view that I should say whatever I need to say in order to achieve something. Because that implies a level of dishonesty.

I became a councillor back in 1971, so if by this stage in politics I'm making lots of big mistakes, then I shouldn't be here.

Boris [Johnson] and Dave [Cameron] gnawed each other's testicles [during the Tory civil war which blighted the EU referendum].

I was a weedy kid, not like one of those working-class men who can accommodate not being academically clever by physical strength and prowess.

You lose power in Britain and you are just Joe Public again.

Anybody who enjoys being in the House of Commons probably needs psychiatric help.

If I blew my nose the Daily Express and the Daily Mail would say that I am trying to spread germ warfare.