Angela Rayner

“People are still programmed to think that if your child doesn't get straight As, get A-levels and go to a Russell Group university, that somehow they are not going to achieve in life. I think that's sad.”

“We can't have children growing up feeling unloved - the price is too high for that.”

“Sometimes you have to invest in people to get the best out of them. To me, that is socialism. That is why I'm a Labour member rather than a Conservative.”

“I was born on a council estate with a mum who, despite doing everything she could for me, couldn't help me learn to read and write because she had never been taught herself. As the jargon would have it now, I was not 'school ready.'”

“We must ensure that every single child can go as far as their ability and their aspirations will take them.”

“If our tax system, as a whole, is progressive, then those with the broadest shoulders will make the greatest contribution, as it should be.”

“I went to my local Sure Start centre, and they put me on a parenting course. I learned things that might seem simple - that it was important to hug and love your child, and read to them. This might seem obvious, but it wasn't to me at the time.”

“If the Tories are serious about ensuring everyone has the opportunity to learn, regardless of their background, then the only thing they need to review is Labour's manifesto.”

“You'd be surprised how many politicians have a working class background but they get it beaten out of them.”

“I was pregnant when I left school, so I needed income support. I didn't even have functional skills, not even GSCEs in English and Maths, so I needed to go back to college.”

“Our admissions system should be a vehicle for justice, but it is failing working-class students, especially those who are the first in their family to go to university.”

“I've always been the girl who can't sit on her hands. If there's a pink elephant in the room, I'll identify it and say it.”

“As a young single mum struggling to get by, I didn't get to go to university, but that level of debt would have been unimaginable.”

“My job is making sure that every child gets a good school place. If there is a particular disadvantage to a community, you invest more. Because that's the Labour way.”

“Students from disadvantaged backgrounds will have the most debt, and then, being less likely than their affluent peers to go straight into high paying jobs, they will spend most of their working lives trying but failing to pay off that debt.”

“We need to focus on helping EVERY child to get a world-class education in EVERY school in this country.”

“Inherently I think the goodness in most people, we get a warm sense of satisfaction if we help someone, it makes you feel better.”

“There was a council house waiting for me when I had Ryan, there was a welfare state. I never put into the system before I took out, I was on income support before I'd even paid a penny of tax.”

“I first learned the power of a Labour government to transform lives growing up in my hometown of Stockport.”

“Underestimating grades has serious consequences for a student's choice of university, and their future.”