George Osborne

“Many retailers have complained bitterly to me about the complexity of the Carbon Reduction Commitment. It's not a commitment; it's a tax.”

“Politics as a parent is fairly demanding; if your parent is in politics, it's fairly demanding, so I make no excuses about taking two weeks off.”

“I've learned to be true to yourself, stick to the big arguments, don't get distracted by the everyday kerfuffle that is in the nature of any democratic system.”

“Britain helped create the Internet - Tim Berners Lee created the World Wide Web, one of a long line of British scientists who have given us an outsized role in shaping our own digital future.”

“There was a real fear that a euro-zone bank might fail, that we'd have a sovereign debt problem in one of the larger European economies. That's dissipated, thanks largely to the action of the European Central Bank.”

“Well you know I've attracted a lot of criticism by, for example, suggesting that child benefit should be taken away from higher rate taxpaying families.”

“You know the illusion of the cheap money is over and now Britain has to go out there and graft and earn its way and create wealth and prosperity in a very competitive world.”

“I want to see genuine talent rewarded.”

“I can't imagine a God who would ever need to intercede in the daily travails of my life.”

“Working people of this country want economic security. The worst possible thing you can do for those families is bust the public finances, have some welfare system this country can't afford.”

“Every day as Chancellor I see alerts telling me of risks around the world.”

“I want to see families with lower energy bills.”

“I didn't come from a traditional Tory background; it was urban and metropolitan.”

“Well British pension funds have not been investing the savings of British people in British infrastructure.”

“I'm not one of those who thinks there is something inherently bad or inferior about watching television.”

“If someone believes that living on benefits is a lifestyle choice, then we need to make them think again.”

“What's important is that, come the general election, people think the right things of you. They think that you've got the right values and the right policies. And that you're the right kind of person to lead the country.”

“Unless they have disabilities to cope with, no family should get more from living on benefits than the average family gets from going out to work. No more open-ended chequebook.”

“The message I would say to China is, 'Carry on with the reform; carry on with the change you are making.'”

“We need strength and success elsewhere in our country - not by pulling London down but by building the rest of the country up.”