Quotes from Kemi Badenoch

Airey Neave's escape from Colditz, quite possibly the most remarkable thing a British politician has ever done, defined his years to come. Disregarding senior officers who frowned on such attempts, Neave was undeterred against overwhelming odds and the risk of death.

The repetition of the victimhood narrative is really poisonous for young people because they hear it and believe it.

As a young black immigrant at an inner-city school, I saw how poverty of ambition left many from disadvantaged backgrounds on the scrap-heap.

For many immigrant groups, lack of trust in authority is something they actually bring from the countries they come from.

There are few countries in the world where you can go in one generation from immigrant to parliamentarian.

Group chats have proven popular breeding grounds for fake news, with dubious articles from even more dubious sources being shared and reshared at the touch of a smartphone.

My favorite artist has not changed since I was five years old: Michael Jackson.

Both my parents are Nigerian, but my mother worked internationally so when she travelled so did the kids.

I'm not just equality minister I am also a Treasury secretary.

Don't let Labour's stereotypes and low expectations hold you back, and never let them treat you like a black sheep who will always follow them.

We should honour the memory of past members like Airey Neave by treating each other and the institution of parliament itself with more respect. Nobody should denigrate it for doing exactly what it should be doing - debating and arguing the most difficult and complex decisions of our time.

If you are a young person then social media means a lot more to you then if you are older.

People shouldn't feel that advice has to come from people who look like them. Because if that happens, then the converse is true: where when an ethnic minority is speaking people might feel well this person is only speaking for their sub-group.

I look at South Africa and look around Europe and ask: are those places better to be black than the U.K.? I don't think so. It doesn't mean everything is perfect.

Labour doesn't have a monopoly on non-white people.

Too often black people are confronted with an assumption that there is only one way to be black, and that anyone who doesn't conform is a 'coconut' an 'Uncle Tom' (or as Ms Dent Coad stated in her blog, a 'token'). It implies we are too stupid to understand what it means to be conservative, or are race traitors.

If you go to the part of Nigeria I'm from, people will say 'why is colonialism my concern?'

I believe the vote for Brexit was the greatest ever vote of confidence in the project of the United Kingdom.

The Sewell Commission was an opportunity to move away from discussions of 'culture wars' towards a balanced, informed discussion about race and opportunity in the United Kingdom. I know most people in this country want that, too.

People are scared to speak out against the status quo: their jobs and livelihoods, they believe, are at risk.

Being different means you are noticed more, and sometimes that has been helpful.

Simple language, simple ideas and a positive vision for the future - this holy trinity holds the key to unlocking the next generation.

I had a very tough upbringing. We all had to do something called 'manual labour.' Mostly it meant getting up at 5 A.M. and cutting grass endlessly.

As the minister for faith as well as equalities, I'm proud to champion our work with faith leaders to help overcome vaccine hesitancy in mothers from religious and ethnic groups.