"Smoking is the now the principal avoidable cause of premature death in Britain. It hits the worst off people hardest of all. Smoking is one of the principal causes of the health gap which leads to poorer people being ill more often and dying sooner."

"I don't think we can go into important local elections next year... with Tony Blair as leader and expect to keep many of the councillors we've got now."

"The present system of protecting NHS patients was a bit of a shambles."