The EU is not a country and it’s not going to become a country, in my view, now or ever in the future. It is a group of countries working together.

You can gain in your effectiveness as a politician from a wide acquaintance with the world and from a degree of independence that having some outside interests gives.

The EU should be concentrated on adapting to globalisation and global competitiveness, not building more powerful centralised institutions in Brussels.

I’m not, nor is anybody I know in government part of a nasty right wing clique.

You can see over time whether people are prepared to differ or not.

Governments that use violence to stop democratic development will not earn themselves respite forever. They will pay an increasingly high price for actions which they can no longer hide from the world with ease, and...

When you reduce taxes on higher earners it’s vital to be reducing them on lower earning people as well so the nation shares in the approach.

We’re not getting involved in terms of sending ground forces into Libya. Let’s be clear about that. And indeed the UN Resolution forbids that. It says no foreign occupation of any part of Libya.

Ambition is best tempered with self-knowledge!

I know people are fickle.

To the teacher weighed down with paperwork, I say: you’ve been messed around too often. You came into teaching to spend your time teaching children not filling in forms.

If some of the people who write about mojo came with me for a week, they would drop dead on their feet.

I still agree with the invasion of Iraq. I don’t agree with most of the decisions that accompanied it.

Syria should not belong to one family, to one coterie, or to one party. It belongs to all the people of Syria equally, in all their religious and ethnic diversity.

We are not directly involved in Syria. But we will be working with our partners in the European Union and at the United Nations to see if we can persuade the Syrian authorities to go,...

If there’s one thing above all that sets me apart from Tony Blair it is this – I am not embarrassed to articulate the instincts of the British people.

You do have to do business with and to try to influence people you don’t agree with, or find disagreeable, so it’s important to stress that balance.

I don’t think my principles change. I think the way in which you apply those principles to modern society changes.

I have found that I get a better reaction from people once I am less bothered about their reaction.

There is no budget for travel for a Shadow Foreign Secretary.

I’ve always been opposed myself to prisoners having the vote.

The appalling crackdown that we witnessed in Hama and other Syrian cities on 30 and 31 July only erode the regime’s legitimacy and increase resentment. In the absence of an end to the senseless violence...

The people of Britain want a Home Secretary who will give them back their streets. They want a Home Secretary who will speak up for the victim, not the criminal.

We are making progress militarily, there is no doubt about that. You’ve seen the reports from Misrata, although reports of the Gaddafi forces completely pulling out of Misrata seem to be exaggerated.

I have always thought that foreign-policy idealism has to be tempered with realism.

Wouldn’t it be better to have a watertight law designed to catch the guilty, rather than a press release law designed to catch the headlines?

When we have a Deputy Prime Minister who tells people not to drive cars but has two Jags himself, and where the Minister who tells people not to have two homes turns out to have...

Whatever happens in Mogadishu, in Somalia, will happen in Great Britain. We have interlocking interests.

It is the mission of the next Conservative Government to build the Responsible Society.

Well, if you’re looking for me to lead a normal representative life, well good luck finding a foreign secretary who’d be like that – totally dependant on the political system and has never earned any...

Time is not on Gaddafi’s side. People ask about the exit strategy. It’s Colonel Gaddafi who needs an exit strategy because this pressure will only mount and it will be intensified over the coming days...

Let’s not be afraid to speak the common sense truth: you can’t have high standards without good discipline.

It’s not too late to stop the Lisbon Treaty.

Elected presidents are for countries.

Egypt is a sovereign nation.

Britain does not normally these days play a huge part in peacekeeping.

The low carbon economy is at the leading edge of a structural shift now taking place globally.

I believe we should reframe our response to climate change as an imperative for growth rather than merely being a way of being green or meeting environmental commitments.

Today further EU targeted sanctions on Syria come into force. The message is clear and unambiguous: those responsible for the repression will be singled out and held accountable.

Governments that block the aspirations of their people, that steal or are corrupt, that oppress and torture or that deny freedom of expression and human rights should bear in mind that they will find it...

One day I will go back to my books and piano, but not yet.

I gave up lots of things I love doing: writing, and business, and playing the piano and so on.

Unless there is meaningful change in Syria and an end to the crackdown, President Assad and those around him will find themselves isolated internationally and discredited within Syria.

I described the euro as a burning building with no exits and so it has proved for some of the countries in it.

The war in Iraq, clearly has not turned out in the way that was hoped.

I’m going to reduce the size of the Cabinet, cut the number of ministers, reduce the size of the House of Commons, campaign for a European Parliament with 100 fewer members, halve the number of...

When the Lord Chancellor violates the trust of his great office of state to solicit party donations from people whose careers he can control, and then says I’m not sorry, and I’d do it again...

The Bill of Rights was intended to secure freedom of speech – the freedom of speech of members of parliament to speak freely rather than be at threat of… the threat of an over powerful...

The British retreat is over and now the advance will begin.

It’s necessary for Israelis and Palestinians to make the compromises that are required to get the direct talks back on track.