James Cleverly

“Once Brexit is delivered, we then need to think about how we can make the Conservatives look new and sound different.”

“I, Daniel Blake' is a powerful and moving film. But it is a political polemic and is particularly unfair on the public sector professionals who work in Job Centre Plus, in my experience they are proactive and helpful. Completely at odds with their portrayal in the film.”

“You can never get perfection. There have to be constant course corrections and there will be constant course corrections on Brexit-related stuff once we leave the E.U.”

“The point of a political party is to attract a broad base of members and activists and lots of them.”

“Because the referendum in 2016 wasn't just about our relationship with the E.U., it was about millions of people and their relationship with politics as a whole.”

“I think the Conservative Party is a fantastic organisation, it's been a wonderful home for me.”

“One of the big learnings both out of the referendum, and out of 2017 general election is that parties that don't have a professional network on the ground slightly lose the ability to hear what local people are saying, so we've reestablished our network of campaign managers out in the field.”

“I'm in the most diverse Cabinet.”

“I was born and brought up in south east London and been very conscious for a long time that people feel politics happens to them and not with them.”

“Being hip, being popular, being cool, that's really easy. Until you have to make tough decisions. And when you have to make tough decisions, that veneer of coolness comes off real quick.”

“When I have been speaking to people in Braintree and at other places in the country they really didn't buy into Labour's economic offer, didn't buy into scare stories about the NHS and clearly didn't trust Jeremy Corbyn.”

“The Conservative Party absolutely can be a party that speaks to mining communities in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire, and communities based around heavy industry in Yorkshire and County Durham, Wales and Cornwall as well as urban areas like London.”

“Once we can Brexit delivered, we can then start talking about those other issues which are much better at bringing people together. We will talk about local health provision, education, farming policing and the economy.”

“Voters don't just want to see detached and distant faces on TV, they want to feel that they know the people that they're trying to vote for.”

“We just fundamentally forgot that people want to vote for something positive. They want to be shown what the good life for them personally looks like.”

“Boris is a naturally energetic and optimistic politician. And when he goes on the campaign trail that just becomes so evident.”

“Brexit has given us the start of a conversation with people who perhaps haven't traditionally voted Conservative.”

“Once we have delivered Brexit, no one is going to say: 'Oh wow, you delivered Brexit, I'm going to ignore everything else to do with politics and reward you!'”

“There are two things you can do in politics: you can sit around waiting for things to happen, or you can start doing them.”

“We have got to build more affordable homes in the south of England, we've just got to.”