"Shes very sharp analytically; she gets to the absolute core of an issue very quickly. Certainly, seeing her in action with officials, they know they going to have to be well-briefed. So shes a very clever person; a good operator and also a pretty decent human being which is important in politics and a bit rare."
Yvette Cooper is a British politician who has served as Foreign Secretary since September 2025, having previously served as Home Secretary from 2024 to 2025. A member of the Labour Party, Cooper has been Member of Parliament (MP) for Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley, previously Normanton, Pontefract and Castleford, since 1997.
"Ive been rather warming to Yvette Cooper over the last year or two. She was one of those new Labour women whom Tories loved to hate at first. I found her pretty irritating. There was something slightly cold and zombie-like in which she used the apparatchik-speak language of New Labour politics and never really seemed to engage with people. She seemed too much like an operative and not enough like a minister. But Ive noticed her changing. Shes relaxed. Shes got funnier."
"I have to say, Mr. Deputy Speaker, the Ministers are like fraudsters in the fairy tale, telling gullible Liberal Democrat MPs about the beautiful progressive clothes that the emperor is wearing, if only they are clever enough and loyal enough to see them. And desperately, we have Liberal Democrats clinging to shreds of invisible cloth, reaching deep into their Liberal and Conservative history to pretend that they can be progressive now. They are claiming that Keynes might have backed the Budget. They are calling on Beveridge for support, kidding themselves that they can call on their history and that they are following in the footsteps of great liberal Conservatives like Winston Churchill, who supported the minimum wage, but the truth is that the emperor has no clothes. The truth is that if you look at the detail, the Budget is nastier than any brought in by Margaret Thatcher. Instead of Churchill, Keynes or the founders of the welfare state, the Liberal Democrats have signed up, with the Right Honourable Member for Chingford and his Chancellor, to cut support for the poor. It is perhaps apt that in this week of World Cup disappointments, it was actually a footballer who got it right. In 2002, after England were defeated in the World Cup by Brazil, Gareth Southgate reflected ruefully on Englands performance and said: "We were expecting Winston Churchill and instead got Iain Duncan Smith." That is the reality for the Liberal Democrats now. With all their high hopes, they have betrayed the poor and the vulnerable, whom they stood up to defend. [The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Steve Webb) rose] I will give way to the hon. Gentleman because I know he has a history of supporting people on low incomes and I do not know why he is betraying it now."
"She was a formidable intellect and its no surprise to me or anyone else around here that shes done as well as she has."
"I decided I dont want to go for the top job now. I could be working for another 25 years and Id like to be reading bedtime stories to my children for another two or three years."
"Sexism in politics is nothing new when youre standing for election. But dont stand for election and its almost as bad. Shockingly, David Cameron thought it acceptable to claim this week that my decision not to run for the Labour leadership was because my husband, Ed Balls, "stopped [me] from standing."
"Nigel Farage is still trying to whip up fear and hatred towards refugees who are fleeing from conflict. It was extremely ill-judged of him to describe himself as a victim."