Jacob Rees-Mogg

“One of the great constraints on economic growth and employment is that the tax and benefits system has grown up over generations and does not give the right incentives. Increasing the minimum wage does not solve this problem.”

“The biographies of the great rarely report much about the nanny, but for many, she will have played a crucial role in their formative years.”

“I'm of the opinion that one of the perks of being in Parliament is not having to do the school run.”

“I have never been to IKEA, no.”

“A decision by the government to arm the rebels in Syria ought to be taken as carefully as one to commit British troops. It is akin to war, albeit by proxy, and must be treated with equal seriousness and meet the tests for a just war.”

“I've never put all my eggs in one basket, and I've always been cautious.”

“Constitutionally, a revising chamber is useful and important. The first occasion I know of in history when the Lords fulfilled this role was in 1539 when Henry VIII's act of proclamations was neutered by their lordships so effectively that the Act was repealed in 1547.”

“The requirement upon the sovereign to 'advise, encourage, and warn' means that the Queen must be well informed. The weekly audience with the Prime Minister is not to discuss the weather but to talk about the most pressing problems facing the nation. An ill-informed monarch cannot do that and would fail in a key constitutional task.”

“I think that conservative principles have a broad appeal, and you should state them boldly, and the point of a Conservative election is to do conservative things, not to do Labour things but slightly less damaging.”

“The arguments over the limits that may be put on individuals suspected of sympathising with the enemy have occurred over the centuries. Habeas corpus was suspended during the Napoleonic wars, and Defence Regulation 18b was applied during the Second World War.”

“Free Trade puts consumers at the centre of economic activity. It lowers the cost of imports, which gives people the opportunity to buy more with the same amount of money: domestic producers have to compete with the lowest global costs or invest in new business.”

“The state ought not to intervene to prevent individuals from doing things that not only are no risk to others but are of no risk to themselves either.”

“Marriage is a sacrament, and the decision of what is a sacrament lies with the Church, not with Parliament.”

“I'm not interested in the past, I'm interested in the future. Europe is past.”

“It is hard to see taxing plastic bags as one of the great issues of our time that merits the foremost place in our finest statesmen's minds. It is an absurd little issue, a picayune proportion of household waste, and a pointless inconvenience in people's lives.”

“The promise of welfare and welfare regulation mean that there is no incentive to accept jobs that do not meet basic standards.”

“If we want to change a law, we can do that in Parliament. That is a democratic right that has often been taken from the E.U.”

“It has never been the case that a peerage can be extinguished, even for the lifetime of a peer, by a motion of the Lords. This does not mean that there are not effective ways of penalising errant peers.”

“Before the government decides to raise the minimum wage, it must consider the effects of the tax and benefits merry-go-round that affects the low-paid.”

“Patience is a virtue; virtue is a grace.”