When you’ve got society calling you a burden and talking about how much money you’re costing the state, it’s bound to impact negatively on your mental health.
— Layla Moran
One of my earliest memories is Mum telling me not to have as many sweets as the other kids because I put on weight so easily.
There is no single cause of homelessness, and vulnerable people, those with mental health problems and addictions for example, need support not punishment.
Genuine supporters of Palestinians’ rights are fighting for equality, justice and freedom, aims that are in diametric opposition to any form of antisemitism.
Protesting is a fundamental aspect of our democracy, and I will always encourage this course of action, but it can be intimidating.
MPs put ourselves at the behest of the British people, certainly, but we are not infallible or devoid of sensitivity.
At school I hated swimming and felt bigger and more self-conscious than all the other girls - and I would go to summer sports camps to desperately try to change my shape so that it couldn’t be one of the taunts aimed at me by bullies.
Having stared into the abyss of what it actually means for your life to be the leader of a political party, I'm just full of admiration and respect for anyone who wants to do it.
The one thing that robots really find difficult to do is to look someone in the eye and have a sense of how they’re feeling. We should be teaching that in schools.
Michael Gove was one of the worst things to ever happen to the education system in this country. David Cameron is the worst Prime Minister this country has ever had.
I was really super into science an not at all in to politics. I think it was a reaction against the fact my dad was a diplomat. I wanted to do something that was totally different. I fell in love with science.
Lib Dems are really good at making very detailed policies but very bad are communicating the core values that drive those policies. I'd like us to say less but more often. We need to focus on a few themes and go hard on them.
I think we need to make access to mental health services a priority in the obesity strategy, too.
Any one of us could fall on hard times. Work and housing have the potential to be unstable, especially for those earning low wages or relying on family and friends. It should not be a criminal offence to sleep on the street.
For far too many, the housing crisis has become a human crisis, with people being criminalised who should instead be protected as our most vulnerable citizens.
I am a British-Palestinian who believes in Israel’s right to exist.
I will always believe that my vote, and the votes of my Lib Dem colleagues, are the best thing I can do to save this country from a no-deal Brexit and save it from Boris Johnson.
Losing weight, even with the help of the operation I had, remains the hardest thing I have ever done - and the thing I am most proud of.
At the age of one, I was already heavier than most: doctors told my mum that she should start feeding me differently to the advice given by the health visitor. Yet I ate healthily, nothing was processed, and I was active and happy. But for whatever reason, I was on the bigger side.
Calling out antisemitism doesn’t make me any less Palestinian.
There are lots of great educationalists out there who really care about social mobility.
When I finished my degree I became a physics and maths teacher. And worked in the international school in Brussels, because like many kids, after University I went home going ‘ahhh I don’t know what to do’. I happened to fall upon a job there because they were desperate for a physics teacher which is a common theme among many schools.
My mum is Palestinian and my dad is British but worked all his life from the European Union for their Foreign Action Service. So I was born in Hammersmith but moved away when I was one. That’s when dad joined the European Commission.
And there were the health benefits of being slimmer. My size made me more likely to get type 2 diabetes and perhaps even cancer, and could have affected my fertility.
The Conservative government’s neglect of social housing is all too apparent and should be a source of national shame.
Palestinians also have a right not to have their homes demolished because an occupying power refuses to grant them a permit. Palestinian children should not be shot at or arrested in the middle of the night and interrogated by the Israeli military while terrified and isolated.
The word 'Zionist' has become toxic. To some it means believing in Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. To others it represents a movement that led to the expulsion and marginalisation of the Palestinian people in their own land.
What provides me with the strength and conviction to walk proudly among protesters so angry about the policies I endorse is the support I absorb when I am in my own constituency. Whenever I am at home, I am met with smiling faces, and words of thanks, even hugs.
I joined a gym when I was 11, agreed to seeing a dietitian aged 15, and I remember being a teenager and going to shops, only to find that as a size 16, the clothes were hidden at the back or on different floors well away from the shop windows.
I am naturally centre-left so the areas of education there are things on which I could work quite closely with Labour on... For example, on trying in Parliament to abolish SATs, I would be the first one through the gates.
It is not at all antisemitic to describe a state as racist.
In my head, I’m still a teacher. I miss the kids.
I have been inspired by the way that Ken Clarke has navigated parliament. I am actively looking across the House for people I really respect and warm to and can learn things from.
The electorate is bored of talking about the past. They are much more interested in the future.
