I can foresee no circumstance in which I would allow my name to be put forward for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

Yes, I do talk to my trees. I did say to one 'You'd better smarten yourself up or you'll be gone' and the next year, well, you've never seen such a mass of flowers.

You can't wield a handbag from an empty chair.

The British public sees with blinding clarity.

There are those who never stretch out the hand for fear it will be bitten. But those who never stretch out the hand will never feel it clasped in friendship.

I keep telling my Tory colleagues: don't have any policies. A manifesto that has policies alienates people. In 1979 the manifesto said nothing which was brilliant.

I can foresee no circumstance in which I would allow my name to be put forward for the leadership of the Conservative Party.