If ever I left the House of Commons it would be because I wanted to spend more time on politics.

Undoubtedly the war with Iraq was a tragedy. I think it was also a crime.

Encouragement is the most important thing in the world for young people, rather than league tables, which demoralise everyone.

We are not just here to manage capitalism but to change society and to define its finer values.

I really think in the Commonwealth of Europe you should have Russia. I listed a hundred countries that would be in it and it would then be a really European United Nations.

Having served in eleven Parliaments, it would be difficult to describe this as a maiden speech. It would be like Elizabeth Taylor appearing at her next wedding in a white gown.

There's people on the left who say, the ballot box is a waste of time. Forget them. When Mandela voted for the first time at the age of 76 there was a lot of grown men, including me, wept buckets. That was what it was about. It doesn't solve things, but it gives you the mechanism to hold to account the people with power.