Diane Abbott

I knew what could happen to my son if he was sent to the wrong school and got in with the wrong crowd.

The honest truth is that if this government were to propose the massacre of the first-born, it would still have no difficulty in getting it through the Commons.

My mother liked Jim Reeves. I hated his records. He was unbearable.

Because when you watch U.S. television, all the presenters and reporters, they're all out of central casting.

Abortion is an issue of conscience for the Labour party.

I was a postman one Christmas and I developed a morbid fear of dogs.

You can't defend the indefensible - anything you say sounds self-serving and hypocritical.

My London constituency in Hackney has one of the highest levels of gun crime in the country. But the problem is no longer confined to inner city areas. Gun crime has spread to communities all over Britain.

Gun crime is a major cause of fear and distress throughout the UK. The problem is deeply entrenched in a wide range of social and cultural factors and therefore not an isolated issue.

It's very lonely bringing up a child on your own.

I believe every abortion is a tragedy.

I don't think you can have pain and soul-searching doing the right thing for your child.

I'm a West Indian mum and West Indian mums will go to the wall for their children.

In politics, the people I most despise are those who have no values.

My forebears refused to cut the sugar cane for plantation owners, and I am recognisably a product of that background.

My family were from Jamaica.

In Parliament we debate on and we decide the laws that are going to govern the country.

Outsiders often have an insight that an insider doesn't quite have.

I want to write a best-selling book.

Finally, there's a sense in which I look at this Westminster village and London intelligentsia as an outsider.

Families are struggling against a tide of junk information on junk food.

When fast food is not a treat but a dietary staple, the children surf the internet all day in dark corners of the room and are bombarded with latest gadgets. Things replace parental standards.

You learn from mistakes.

I wanted my marriage to work, but it didn't.

Tackling childhood obesity is key.

Mental health is often missing from public health debates even though it's critical to wellbeing.