The first big choice: a government with the strength to deliver stability, or a government that takes the country back to boom and bust.

Labour is the party of law and order in Britain today. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.

My dad was a militant atheist, or is a militant atheist. My mum was sort of bought up in a religious family because she was a Protestant from Ireland but wasn't especially religious.

But I am an optimist about Britain; and the difference between an optimist and a pessimist is not that the optimist believes the world is wonderful and the pessimist believes it's beset by challenges; the difference is the pessimist believes we will be defeated by them; the optimist thinks the challenges can be overcome.

Our aim is not just an educated nation but an intelligent one

The first big choice: a government with the strength to deliver stability, or a government that takes the country back to boom and bust.

I just want to say this. I want to say it gently but I want to say it firmly: There is a tendency for the world to say to America, ‘the big problems of the world are yours, you go and sort them out,’ and then to worry when America wants to sort them out.