When I swapped studying for a wage and a proper job, Mam and Dad were devastated. I was rejecting an opportunity they never had. But their eldest son, at 16, wanted only to follow his father down the pit. It was to be the biggest education of my life.

More Quotes by Dennis Skinner

We dragged the National Health Service from the depths of degradation. I've got a United Nations heart bypass to prove it and it was done by a Syrian cardiologist, a Malaysian surgeon, a Dutch doctor and a Nigerian registrar.

We have all lost before and we will win again.

I have bought my flat myself and never charged a penny of it to the taxpayers.

I was elected by people voting Labour! The idea that you come to Parliament and the first thing you do is that you're hand in hand with Tories and Liberals - I can't understand it! I came here and I made my mind up that I wasn't going to collaborate with the people I'd fought against in the election. It wasn't a difficult thing.

I'm not gregarious. I spend a lot of time in the parks when it is fine. I do know almost every blade of grass.

I did marathons long before they were popular, when people running round the streets were looked at oddly.