I never really grew up being political or Labour. It was just a realisation that where you were born mattered. That how you spoke mattered... who you knew mattered.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I didn't come into politics to change the Labour Party. I came into politics to change the country.
When I joined Labour in 1982, I didn't feel I belonged to a party born to power. My repeated experience was of bitter and repeated defeats.
My mum was Labour-voting, but wanted us to know we were important. Basically, everyone's equal, but you, my children, are a bit better.
Well, I feel that everybody in the country knows me. I think people know who I am, and that I'm deputy leader of the Labour party, and that I'm out there talking about their big choice for the future.
I'm not a political thinker, but I've just always thought of myself as a Labour supporter. I was a great fan of Tony Blair. He sent me a letter before I swam the Channel to wish me luck.
If I went into politics, it's because I grew up in a political atmosphere.
I got into politics a little bit by chance, as a person from the first generation of the Solidarity movement.
People know where I stand in the Labour party and what I believe in.
It always seemed to be a constant that my parents were political.
I knew quite a lot about politics before I went to Parliament.