Quotes from Angela Rayner

School, for me, was not a place where you went to be educated, but a place where you got away from your parents for a couple of hours while they got some respite from you, and where you were able to see your mates.

I'm a mum and I hate the thought of any child going a whole day at school without a healthy meal.

Free school meals for all children, no matter what their background, will improve the education and health of our children.

In a parliamentary democracy, it is the job of parliament to decide the law, not the government.

If I hadn't had access to the vital support of my local Sure Start centre, I would never have had the help I - and my son - needed.

I think technical education and vocational skills and having a trade mean something.

I do my best to be true to who I am.

Give children healthy food and they behave better at school, concentrate more in class and perform better in exams.

Any success I have had is thanks to Labour governments that provided the council house, minimum wage, tax credits and Sure Start children's centre that enabled me to achieve it.

My brother and sister are smarter than me. But I'm the most successful because I've been given opportunities that they never had.

My mother suffers mental health problems and has a learning deprivation.

We had poverty in our house. Even on the council estate I knew I was one of the poorer kids. I used to go round my friends houses on a Sunday to get their Sunday dinner because my mum couldn't cook either so I used to love going round my mates and say: 'Can you ask your Mum if I can come in for Sunday dinner?'

I mean getting into parliament was quite an achievement in itself and then I have to pinch myself at the thought of actually running a department.

I've always been the girl who can't sit on her hands. If there's a pink elephant in the room, I'll identify it and say it.

Inherently I think the goodness in most people, we get a warm sense of satisfaction if we help someone, it makes you feel better.

Growing up without love, without being cared for, might be the worst type of poverty.

I wanted to be the best mum I could be. I just wanted the means to be able to help myself. And, luckily for me, I had a Sure Start centre and I had adult education I could go back into.

You never, ever give up the chance to change things, ever, no matter how hard it is. If you're elected, and have got the opportunity to make a difference, you take it.

Building a country that worked for everyone was supposed to be about supporting ordinary working class families, which is exactly what Labour's plan to bring back the maintenance grant would do.

Surely in a country that works for everyone ensuring that everyone has access to an excellent education should be the first priority of any government?

The way I want to try and end private schools is by making our national education service so good you wouldn't want to waste your money.

No deal wouldn't return sovereignty to the U.K., it would make us dependent on a sweetheart deal with Donald Trump.

The privileged have become more wealthy, while people from disadvantaged backgrounds have had their opportunities to get on and move up closed off. That's the Tory way.

There was a council house waiting for me when I had Ryan, there was a welfare state. I never put into the system before I took out, I was on income support before I'd even paid a penny of tax.