Kemi Badenoch

“I've been out of work myself and hated it. Any work, even on a minimum wage, is better than none.”

“People are rightly concerned about what Brexit will mean for the country, for their jobs and for their families.”

“I'm black but I'm also a woman, a Mum.”

“We should honour the memory of past members like Airey Neave by treating each other and the institution of parliament itself with more respect. Nobody should denigrate it for doing exactly what it should be doing - debating and arguing the most difficult and complex decisions of our time.”

“Too often black people are confronted with an assumption that there is only one way to be black, and that anyone who doesn't conform is a 'coconut' an 'Uncle Tom' (or as Ms Dent Coad stated in her blog, a 'token'). It implies we are too stupid to understand what it means to be conservative, or are race traitors.”

“Before any decision is made on proposals for ending conversion therapy we must understand the problem, the range of options available and the impact they would have.”

“Labour doesn't have a monopoly on non-white people.”

“There are very few things in this world more powerful, or precious, than a mother's love for her child.”

“The Sewell Commission was an opportunity to move away from discussions of 'culture wars' towards a balanced, informed discussion about race and opportunity in the United Kingdom. I know most people in this country want that, too.”

“Free speech is never out of the news.”

“As the minister for faith as well as equalities, I'm proud to champion our work with faith leaders to help overcome vaccine hesitancy in mothers from religious and ethnic groups.”

“You can't pick and choose the rules depending on the colour of someone's skin. That is what the racists do.”

“Growing up in Nigeria I saw real poverty - I experienced it, including living without electricity and doing my homework by candlelight, because the state electricity board could not provide power, and fetching water in heavy, rusty buckets from a bore-hole a mile away, because the nationalised water company could not get water out of the taps.”

“My favorite artist has not changed since I was five years old: Michael Jackson.”

“The amount I have cost the NHS for maternity services is phenomenal.”

“I love the philosophy around the rule of law.”

“We've got gay marriage, and civil partnerships, so what are transsexuals looking for?”

“Misogyny is definitely something that's wrong.”

“We want a broad pipeline of people coming through, we want to have a huge variety of people who are applying to become Conservative MPs.”

“Labour has lots of groups of people, whether it's public sector workers, nurses and so on who will push their policies out for them. The right-wing equivalent, whether it's businesses, the Church etc, don't say anything. They all hide behind Conservative politicians.”