Andrew Adonis

“I want a European future where we extend and reinforce peace and prosperity to the east, a future where workers are better protected and inequalities reduced, where our energy and lifestyles are clean and green, where democracy is enhanced, where taxes are paid and corporations play by fair rules.”

“I think universities are one of the great civilising forces of life.”

“I've always believed in one nation even when it wasn't entirely fashionable inside the Labour party... and I believe one nation means building a really solid alliance between the classes.”

“Unprincipled governments are inevitably unstable, unsuccessful and short-lived.”

“I'm never drunk. I do drink but never more than a glass or two of wine a day if that.”

“Tests account for only a couple of hours within the six years of a child's primary education, but parents expect to know how their children are doing and the government has a responsibility to monitor and control standards.”

“The partial exception to our London-centric state institutions is the monarchy, which has always had peripatetic tendencies.”

“Lots of my contemporaries have had to come to terms with who they are and realise all those deeply held assumptions we had when we were teenagers and in our 20s no longer apply.”

“Not one single country in the world is dependent for their trade wholly on WTO guidelines - they aren't 'rules,' because the sanctions for breaching the guidelines are puny.”

“I have to confess, street politics are not my usual style.”

“My father came to Britain in search of a better life. My aunts, uncles and cousins fled here in search of safety as Cyprus's Greek and Turkish populations fell into open hostility.”

“Theresa May is singularly unsuited for high office and lacks political talent.”

“Brexit has always been an impossible project, except at the price of massive self-harm.”

“All partners in the workplaces have a key role to play in training a workforce fit for the future.”

“When I was a minister I only went on about things I was going to make happen. I very rarely talked about things I wasn't.”

“Systematic social and environmental deregulation, and the economics of austerity while enriching the rich, will be the markers of Farage/Tory politics after Brexit. Singapore-on-Sea for the rich; degradation for the rest.”

“Efficiency, connectivity and productivity are all economic buzzwords that people have said high-speed rail will deliver. But at the heart of it what high-speed rail will deliver is growth and jobs.”

“Brexit is a cliff, not a gradient. The mistake we are in danger of making is to believe that some Brexits are better than others when the fundamental problem is Brexit itself.”

“Despite my deep misgivings about austerity and the harm it would do, I agreed to chair the national infrastructure commission under a Tory government, because I believed that delivering infrastructure investment could help build a brighter future for businesses and families. I am a pragmatist. I do what works.”

“Brexit is not a viable path for Britain.”