I spent the summers packing toothpaste at a factory, working where my dad worked, and everyone else had gone on a gap year!

I live on a big old Dutch barge by Tower Hill on the Thames.

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.

I am Batley and Spen born and bred, and I could not be prouder of that. I am proud that I was made in Yorkshire, and I am proud of the things we make in Yorkshire. Britain should be proud of that, too.

Yorkshire folk are not fools: talk about devolving power to cities and regions, while simultaneously stripping them of the resources to deliver and subjecting northern councils such as Kirklees to the harshest of cuts, is not compatible with a worthy commitment to building a northern powerhouse to drive growth and prosperity.