You only require two things in life: your sanity and your wife.

I didn’t come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.

There is no way you’re going to have an event like 9/11 and expect things to remain the same. They killed 3,000 people in New York on that day, and if they could have they would’ve killed 300,000.

Mine is the first generation able to contemplate the possibility that we may live our entire lives without going to war or sending our children to war.

In Downing Street they called me ‘Boss’. Civil servants would always call me ‘Prime Minister’.

The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.

You only require two things in life: your sanity and your wife.

I can only go one way. I’ve not got a reverse gear.

However much I dislike the idea of abortion, you should not criminalize a woman who, in very difficult circumstances, makes that choice.

I would’ve loved to have been in a band, but sadly I just wasn’t good enough.

I think the journey for a politician goes from wanting to please all the people all the time, to a political leader that realises in the end his responsibility is to decide. And when he decides, he divides.

I feel like everyone else in this country today. I am utterly devastated.

This is not a battle between the United States of America and terrorism, but between the free and democratic world and terrorism.

Those who wish to cause religious conflict are small in number but often manage to dominate the headline.

The threat from Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction – chemical, biological, potentially nuclear weapons capability – that threat is real.

Power without principle is barren, but principle without power is futile. This is a party of government, and I will lead it as a party of government.

Once his wife goes to sleep it takes a minor nuclear explosion to wake her.

We, therefore, here in Britain stand shoulder to shoulder with our American friends in this hour of tragedy, and we, like them, will not rest until this evil is driven from our world.

I cannot think of any circumstances in which a government can go to war without the support of parliament.

I may find Saddam Hussein’s regime abhorrent – any normal person would – but the survival of it is in his hands.

It is not an arrogant government that chooses priorities, it’s an irresponsible government that fails to choose.

There is no meeting of minds, no point of understanding with such terror. Just a choice: Defeat it or be defeated by it. And defeat it we must.

Labour is the party of law and order in Britain today. Tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime.

Conflict is not inevitable, but disarmament is… everyone now accepts that if there is a default by Saddam the international community must act to enforce its will.