Grant Shapps

Every part of society should honour the debt we owe those who've served our country.

A tax is something people pay out of income.

One of the cruellest things of all is to have a huge deficit in this country, meaning that everyone's children will be expected to pay back for our debt today. That is unfair as well.

I want to reignite the idea of community with a positive conservatism in which the word 'development' has a new connotation, kind of like a social revolution.

The more the government has centralised, the less houses we have built.

Things don't always go according to plan. That's life and that's government.

No government can maintain the public's confidence if it is outwardly split.

MPs are only elected thanks to the help of ordinary members - activists on the ground who traipse the streets, post leaflets and engage in millions of doorstep conversations, come rain or shine and without pay.

Political shenanigans come and go, yet often what feels like a big deal in Westminster fails to get a mention on the news. As a result, the public wisely let most of the hurly-burly of politics wash over their heads.

It is often said there is a great deal of talent in the Conservative Parliamentary Party. This is true, but too many of the brightest and best remain on the backbenches.

Having served in the Forces a positive when it comes to applying for jobs. But we know some former service personnel can find the transition difficult.

Our brave servicemen and women sacrifice so much for us all - whether they're spending months away from their families and friends or putting their lives on the line for our country.

I believe that enabling former service personnel to travel more easily is the least we can do.

What matters to every family in the country is that the cost of living is controlled.

Like all parents, I want to give my kids the best start in life.

Welfare's just one of the problems Labour failed to tackle when they were in government.

We'll always focus on creating a society where people who work hard and want to get on in life are rewarded.

When I was setting up my own business in my early 20s I'd get up early and work every hour I could stay awake.

I absolutely believe that we're the workers' party. We are the party that has always been at the forefront of the big social changes that have promoted women and working people.

I think politicians just need to get out in the real world.

I've always been quite driven so it wasn't like the cancer was my wake-up call.

I was so glad when geek went from being a bad word to a good word.

I believe that investing in welfare is crucial - but I also believe that it only works if you're getting help to those who need it. If you're doing it with no results, it's disastrous.

Labour voted to increase welfare spending again and again, without considering the effect that the spending was having, either on the people it was designed to help or those working to support the system.

We need to make sure that people are progressively better off in work than they would be on welfare.

People like me - who set up a homelessness foundation, worked with all the homeless charities, authored probably six of seven homelessness papers - don't make changes without thinking through the impact of them on the homeless.

One of my priorities is getting the trains to run on time, and as a commuter myself I understand all too well the frustration caused by endless delays and cancellations.

I think it's absolutely extraordinary that any Conservative MP considered even for one minute installing Jeremy Corbyn in Downing Street.

Taxi drivers up and down the country are at the vanguard of the electric vehicle revolution.

I see the Conservative party becoming more and more attractive to people from all different backgrounds, particularly because so many of the immigrant communities are people who work hard and get on in life... so I think they are naturally Conservative.

I did not have a second job while being an MP.

Look at the growing middle class in India. Small businesses are not just a source of jobs and prosperity: they are the driving force of social justice too.

Struggling to start a small business is all-encompassing. It is a 24-hour job that places strain on those involved. As well as worrying about your own mortgage and kids, you worry about those of your staff.

Businesses, not benefits, are the true ladder of social mobility.

We may forget it, among the glitz of the Christmas lights, but capitalism can be a profoundly moral force.

It's almost impossible to get the outside world to take any notice of homelessness at all.

People pay their licence fee in this country because people believe that we should have public service broadcast programming. Of course, there are lots of different ways you could do that.

It is ludicrous to suggest that we would ever do things that would end with people living on our streets.

Labour have long since forgotten that people work hard to pay their taxes and support our welfare system.

We need a system where some politicians - who quite rightly respond to the public mood - are prepared to stand up in favour of housebuilding, so I came up with a system that gives local people something they really want in return for building more homes. In our case in Hatfield, it's a new town centre.

Newspapers in this country are famously independent of politics.

Broken Britain isn't just about our indebted economy, it's also about our broken society and broken politics too.

We must formulate policies to allow everyone to have the same opportunities in life and fix our broken society too.

We want councillors and MPs to be more closely involved in housing issues because this will help to strengthen local democracy and accountability.

It's impossible to know precisely what constitutes the right house price but I do know that house prices doubling or even tripling over a 10 year period caused a lot of people to find that getting a foot on the housing ladder is near on impossible.

There's no reason why the public shouldn't be able to see how billions of pounds are being spent on their behalf.

I don't see any reason why society can't function well when people come together in the common interest under our system. In fact that's what the Big Society is all about!

My great hope for my speck of time on this planet would be that I live and die, and that what I leave behind has made some kind of impression and has been for the better in terms of my family and friends and, in my case, public service.

Look, ideally I'd like to have free money to give to everybody. The reality is in government you have to choose and make decisions.

If you believe in staying at home and looking after your kids, and bringing your kids up, we think it is a fantastic thing to do.