Francis Maude Quotations

We should be the natural home for young mothers. But we're not. Because too often we sound like people who think the only good mother is a married mother.

It is simply the view, and a view I think shared by most members of the party, that it is very difficult to have a leader that does not command the support of the parliamentary party.

It always seemed to me a bit pointless to disapprove of homosexuality. It's like disapproving of rain.

We said in our 21st Century Party paper there are 61 mosaic groups, which the market research people use as different socio-economic categories and half of our members come from just five of those groups and that is very narrow - too narrow.

If we do what we think is right, not try to point-score, people will begin to trust us.

Our party has known great, great days. But we have no God-given right to survive, let alone to succeed.

Our share of the vote overall rose by less than 1 per cent - yes, that's right: less than 1 per cent.

The party at its best has always been a modern party.

We need to show that we know and understand and can reflect today's Britain. Today we don't.

I feel fantastically excited that we have a leader who fought for the leadership without compromising his quite challenging view that the party has to change.

Our members are very much maligned. Obviously the average age is 60 something, but they all have children and grandchildren, they understand what we need to do, they want to win.

But if we can work with people in other parties to get the right answer for the country we'll do that.

For the most part our grassroots members are serious, nice, tolerant people.

If we want to change what people think of us, then we have got to change.

Our party's committed to tackling failing schools and cutting crime.

The problem we have is not Labour, in however it is configured.

They don't think we're in touch with modern Britain, or understand modern Britain or like modern Britain.

We should be the natural home for the millions of Britons of immigrant origin. But we're not. Because too often we've sounded like people who wish they hadn't come here at all.

So our problem is not Labour, it is us, is making us attractive enough to gain disillusioned Labour support and to compete effectively with the Lib Dems for those loose votes.

We should be the natural home for younger voters. But today we're not. Because too often we sound like people who just don't like contemporary Britain.

I grew up in this party, I'm proud of it, and I love it. I just hate the fact that we don't win; that we can't serve our country in Government.

Some of that money may well have been from overseas sources.

Well we've seen the amount of money that people save in this country falling, and dramatically, by as much as a quarter already.

We recognize that the current arrangements have to change. The existence and extent of the loans has always been declared.

We've been seen for a long time as a party which hasn't been very open to gay people. That's wrong.

There has not been any of that so far, ... All the contenders have been treating each other with respect and courtesy.

We have serious work to do. There is a lot of change to do.

What people want from Mr Blair is not more polished rhetoric about the future but practical solutions to the problems of the present.

We should be the natural home for people in our cities. But we're not. Because too often we've sounded as if we're just a countryside party.

I want to make it very open. We've researched the practicalities and there are lots of innovative ways of doing it that don't cost an arm and a leg. We've looked to see if there's a way of having a very open primary election that doesn't kill us financially.

If you draw a line through Birmingham we lost support above that line and we lost support among voters under 35 so we are now third in that group.

David Cameron's message of change, optimism and hope is in tune with what Britain wants today

Everyone now claims to be a moderniser and it's obvious, really. I mean, no one now says 'We need to go backwards... to the days of Lord Salisbury'.

The chairman of the conference does feel very strongly that the platform speakers must be dealt with in a very neutral way with no one being allowed extra time.