Nigel Lawson

“However useful computer models may be, the one thing they cannot be is evidence. Computer climate models are simply conjectures.”

“The 'in' campaign will attempt to scare people into believing that if the U.K. were to leave, investment and jobs would move abroad. They are as wrong about that now as they were when they warned that this would happen if we did not sign up to the Euro.”

“I have long argued that in the modern world, corporation tax has had its day as a major source of tax revenue.”

“I am delighted to accept the chairmanship of Vote Leave, to help ensure that the organisation is fully prepared for the start of the referendum campaign.”

“As the resignation letter which I wrote to the Prime Minister clearly implies, it was not the outcome I sought, but it is one that I accept without rancour, despite what might be described as the hard landing involved.”

“I remember when we ignored Europe and we were totally committed to the Commonwealth and the former Empire, and thought imperial preference was the only thing which enabled us to survive, that was a mistake, and it's a similar mistake to feel Britain can't be a hugely successfully country - economically and in any other way - outside the E.U.”

“We already have a sabbatical system. It's called opposition, and I've had enough of it.”

“There is always, of course, a limit in a democracy as to what is politically possible, so you have to respect that limit. But in my experience, governments tend to be too timid.”

“It would be wholly wrong constitutionally for the unelected House of Lords to do anything, to kill anything of a financial nature that has been through the House of Commons not once but twice.”

“The heart of the matter is that the very nature of the European Union, and of this country's relationship with it, has fundamentally changed after the coming into being of the European monetary union and the creation of the eurozone, of which - quite rightly - we are not a part.”

“If our system of cabinet government is to work effectively, the prime minister of the day must appoint ministers he or she trusts and then leave them to carry out that policy.”

“I have to say to the Government that you are not even getting nowhere fast - you are getting nowhere slowly.”

“One of the things that concerned me was the way the system operated: the wife who went out to work got a full personal allowance, but the wife who was working at home got nothing. This was particularly hard on wives who gave up work for a time to bring up children.”

“Raising the personal allowance is massively expensive. For the same amount of money, you could look at reducing the rate of tax.”

“Too much of British business and industry feels similarly secure in the warm embrace of the European single market and is failing to recognise that today's great export opportunities lie in the developing world, particularly in Asia.”

“This clutching hold of the E.U. is a sign of a lack of national self-confidence - which is not healthy.”

“I am in favour of a fully transferable allowance.”

“I am not anti-European.”

“I'm sure Mark Carney is a very clever young man, but I think that the government would be mad to move from inflation targeting to money GDP targeting.”

“When differences of view emerge, as they are bound to do from time to time, they should be resolved privately and whenever appropriately, collectively.”