Ed Miliband

“A company is not accountable just to its owners, but to its workers and its customers.”

“No one is going to persuade me that eight people arriving in South Shields is going to overwhelm the local system. I think that 25,000 refugees would be more in line with the U.N. That would be a substantive contribution.”

“I felt I could still make a contribution with ideas. I didn't know how, and it has taken me some time to work that out. There were things that mattered to me about the future of the country: inequality, what the post-financial crisis settlement would be. I still felt strongly about all that.”

“Scepticism and cynicism about politics is so great that one of the best counters to it is what you can do at a local level.”

“The great thing is that whether we have faith or not, we are by and large very tolerant of people, whatever their particular view.”

“I suppose not everyone has a dad who wrote a book saying he didn't believe in the Parliamentary road to socialism.”

“Yes, look, social class is definitely an issue in Britain, it is definitely an issue and I think that most people across the country would sympathise with the idea that there are lots of people with talent and ability all across this country who want to make more of themselves and part of the responsibility of government is to make that happen.”

“While there's capitalism, there'll be socialism, because there is always a response to injustice.”

“Dominant narrative is so overwhelming in politics. The smallest gaffe when the momentum is against you is a disaster. But when it is with you, everyone just ignores it.”

“Let's start to have a grown up debate in this country about who we are and where we want to go and what kind of country we want to build.”

“Remember, I'm the guy who didn't want the referendum - I wouldn't have had it if I'd been prime minister. But you have to respect how people voted because this was partly about political alienation, so if the response to political alienation is to ignore it, that's a recipe for more political alienation.”

“People want bigger, bolder answers to the problems that exist. I felt, as leader, 'My analysis is big; are the answers big enough?'”

“I come from a generation that suffered school lessons in portacabins and crumbling hospitals. I tell you one thing, for the eighteen years they were in power the Tories did nothing to fix the roof when the sun was shining.”

“Think of how we challenged the impression that we taxed for its own sake and that we were hostile to business. We were right to change.”

“The way that you are when you're allowed to be yourself is very different from when you're, say, being interviewed by Jeremy Paxman. You're never given the breathing space.”

“We do not have to accept the world as we find it. And we have a responsibility to leave our world a better place and never walk by on the other side of injustice.”

“The numbers that we can welcome to our own countries are relatively small in comparison to the millions that have been displaced, but it's vital because it sets an example.”

“Do you defend free markets, or do you reform them? It's the same issue that Labour had in the mid-Seventies, and it's the same issue the Tories had after 1945. How do you interact with this new ideological term?”

“And think of how we challenged the idea of a male dominated Parliament with All-Women shortlists and made the cause of gender equality central to our government. We were right to do so.”

“Let the message go out - a new generation has taken charge of Labour which is optimistic about our country, optimistic about our world, optimistic about the power of politics. We are optimistic and together we will change Britain.”