What does a teacher do in a school? A teacher would tell you off or give you lines or whatever it is, detentions, but at the same times, they are wanting your best interests at heart. They are teaching you, they are educating you, but at the same time, they will also have the ability to sanction you.
— Esther McVey
We've got to be as good as our word.
For too long, people have had to neutralise or lose their accent out of fear of prejudicial treatment or to fit in. This has then led to a lack of regional accents, which has allowed this lazy stereotyping and prejudicial attitudes to prevail.
I was raised in inner-city Liverpool, the first in my family to go to university.
Leaving the E.U. is an opportunity for our country.
I believe most people in their life will fall upon tough times at some point.
I've had other friends who had such a burning desire to have children: they have this biological ticking clock. I don't know what happened to mine. Nobody ever wound it up.
First and foremost, we have to ensure that we have to get our own kids ready for work so that employers want to take them on.
I come from a background where people have had their own business, where it has been incredibly tough for a long period of time, and you are only as good as the last contract you have got, as the last job you have done, where the notion of a precarious existence does exist, as it does for a lot of people.
I want to give the message that anyone can succeed given the opportunity.
Where I come from, from a very different point of view, it's a Labour heartland, it's a trade union heartland, and I'll have a very personal campaign against me there.
There is a whole host of people that have got an accent like mine, whether they're from Merseyside or Wales or the North West.
Life is about hard work and getting on with things.
I ran my first campaign when I was 11. My slogan was 'Vote McVey, vote the right way.' I've never surpassed it!
One of my best friends was the first U.K. female fighter pilot.
Sometimes, for girls, it's about building confidence and giving them a can-do attitude. It's seeing role models, people like yourselves, doing those jobs and achieving them, just to say, 'I can do that.'
Politicians themselves, every one of us, has a responsibility to make sure that we send out a message that it is a good place to work, that it is positive, that you are transforming people's lives.
Part of the Brexit debate was about control, having a say over our laws and money and letting politicians stand up for what the people voted for, not signing away our sovereignty.
Politics is all about trust. Trust is like the soul: once gone, it never returns.
It makes my life easier that I don't have to take my daughter or son to school, that I've not got to look after them because they are ill. But then, I'm not nurtured and cherished, so I will seek external love from other close relationships.
It's important to know what you can do and what you can't.
I believe Jeremy Corbyn getting his hands on power is a risk we cannot afford to take.
I've met people at the top of companies like Accenture who started off in McDonald's.
I always thought, as I was growing up, that I'd be married with children. That hasn't happened.
If people are coming into the country to add an extra dimension, to bring skills and expertise with them, we have always been open to that.
That's what you've got to be to be an MP: a problem solver. How can I help you? How can I engage? What do you need?
Most people fall upon tough times at some point.
What I like to see is people like Beyonce. Here is a woman who is bling-a-ding. Not only does she look like that and act like that - I've seen her perform, and I was blown away - but she is at the top of her profession.
When I became minister for employment, that was my ideal job because it meant I was able to reflect on what I saw growing up and actually try to change it.
My dad started off in scrap metal, real men doing men's jobs.
Our young people are some of the best and most talented in the world - they are driven, entrepreneurial, and innovative - and with the help of people who have already made it in the world of work, they can go on to be the bosses and employers of the future.
You wouldn't try and make a cake without a recipe book. Careers are just the same.
Politics has to be a place where women want to go.
I have had long relationships but have never married.
You can't underestimate how patriotic the people of this country are.
People shouldn't have to lose their accents to get a fair crack at the whip at a job or move up within a sector or industry.
David Cameron, and before him Iain Duncan Smith, went out of their way to attract women into the party. Yes, we need to sell politics to more women, but quotas are not the way forward. You set a quota, what is the right quota? What is the wrong quota?
When we cannot find enough extra money for policing, yet we are having huge sums to other countries in aid, it is time to start a serious conversation.
We know that children living in a household with someone in work do better in school, have better educational attainment, and are more likely to have a job later in life than children growing up in a home where no one works.
This is how I am. I'm happy with my friends, my family, my job.
When I was growing up, my parents put money into food, utility bills, and the mortgage.
We never have been closed to immigration.
I guess, as a young girl growing up in Liverpool in the '80s, when unemployment was high, my ideal job would have been to have been Minister for Employment to see, can you solve these problems? Can you get people into work?
What you've seen from the 1980s, particularly in this country, is far fewer people doing Saturday jobs and doing jobs after school.
Has my accent held me back? I don't believe it has at all. I think it can be a colourful accent.
Life is not a theoretical problem to be solved in class.
The people I believed in were people like William Lever, the great philanthropic industrialist - self-made men who realised anyone could achieve.
People who have been successful in business have a huge amount to offer young people who are just starting out.
You only have a true choice when you know what opportunities are out there and what qualifications you need.
The behaviour of several male politicians against me has never been condemned by Ed Miliband, or the Labour Party, and it needs to be because in the end, it will have a long-term corrosive effect for politics full stop and for young girls who want to go into politics.
