I believe Ofsted measures poverty. It measures deprivation. It doesn't measure excellence.
Private schools are gaming the system. There is way too much state money going in, and people who go to private schools seem to be given a head start for all of the top jobs and that's something that needs to be dealt with as well.
People are still programmed to think that if your child doesn't get straight As, get A-levels and go to a Russell Group university, that somehow they are not going to achieve in life. I think that's sad.
The way I want to try and end private schools is by making our national education service so good you wouldn't want to waste your money.
We had poverty in our house. Even on the council estate I knew I was one of the poorer kids. I used to go round my friends houses on a Sunday to get their Sunday dinner because my mum couldn't cook either so I used to love going round my mates and say: 'Can you ask your Mum if I can come in for Sunday dinner?'
I never got hugged as child.
Ideology never put food on my table.
There was a council house waiting for me when I had Ryan, there was a welfare state. I never put into the system before I took out, I was on income support before I'd even paid a penny of tax.
I mean getting into parliament was quite an achievement in itself and then I have to pinch myself at the thought of actually running a department.
Regardless of what tribe people think they're in, we don't work in isolation as human beings, we want to do what's right.
My kids live in a different environment than I did as a child. They've got privileges I didn't have as a child, but they have disadvantages. They don't see their mum as much. They see the threats that one gets. They live in a house where they've got panic buttons, and I've had to teach them about safety.
Inherently I think the goodness in most people, we get a warm sense of satisfaction if we help someone, it makes you feel better.
I wanted to be the best mum I could be. I just wanted the means to be able to help myself. And, luckily for me, I had a Sure Start centre and I had adult education I could go back into.
I remember I had to have steel toecaps because my nana said, 'They'll last,' and I remember being bullied because my shoes weren't like anyone else's. Everyone had Kickers.
If you want to underestimate me because I speak like a Mancunian, like the people I grew up with, then so be it at your peril.
You'd be surprised how many politicians have a working class background but they get it beaten out of them.
I don't pronounce all my words exactly how they do on the BBC. I am who I am.
Anyone can achieve it if they're given the opportunity to.
I do my best to be true to who I am.
I never thought I would get a degree of any type.
